Return to The Valiant
by Brownbug
Summary: Master/ Time Lady OC: "The Master has used the Cardiff Rift to send himself and Tejana back to The Year That Never Was, aiming to change history and conquer the Universe. But the Rift is very unstable and unpredictable. Unbeknown to the Master, something else has come through with them. And this time around, he just may not be the 'biggest bad' on board The Valiant". 4th in series.
1. Chapter 1

_**WARNING: This is the fourth installment in the "One Moment in Time" series, following on from "One Moment in Time", "Portal of Eternity" and "So Many Things Should Have Been Different". You will need to read from the beginning to make sense of it all.**_

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**_Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who or anything remotely related to it._**

**_Summary: The Master has used the Cardiff Rift to send himself and Tejana back to The Year That Never Was, with the aim of using his knowledge of events to change the outcome and conquer the Universe. But the Rift is very unstable and unpredictable. Unbeknown to the Master, something else has come through with them. And this time around, he just may not be the "biggest bad" on board The Valiant._**

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**CHAPTER ONE**

**- _The Valiant_, December 2008 -**

The Master didn't come back.

At first, Tejana paced up and down the tiny cell like a caged animal, compulsively turning the psi-inhibitor bracelet around and around on her wrist, the fury boiling in her veins. It was all so crazy. She remembered pacing here so many times before, just like this, trying to take her mind off the claustrophobia of her imprisonment, trying desperately not to think of that other cell from long ago, back on Gallifrey. Time Lords generally did not deal well with confinement and Tejana dealt with it less well than most. During the Year That Never Was, she had managed to remain sane by concentrating on the many different and varied methods she would like to use to kill the Master, dwelling on each scenario in exquisite detail, fingers curling uncontrollably with the overwhelming desire to scratch his eyes out.

_Some things never change_, she thought angrily. Right now, if the other Time Lord had been available, she would quite happily have strangled him. Rassilon had been defeated, the Master's drums were gone again – they should be exploring the Universe together somewhere, making up for all the time they had lost, not stuck back in this ridiculous nightmare.

_What could he possibly have been thinking? We've come so far, changed so much – how can he even want to go back?_

Stupid question, really. She knew exactly what he had been thinking. What he was _always _thinking. Death, destruction, devastation, domination – any number of "D" words which had formed the Master's prime directive for centuries. The Doctor had tried to warn her, but she had refused to listen.

_Well, Tejana, here's another fine mess you've gotten us into, _she told herself ruefully. What the hell was she going to do now? Back then, in the old days, things had been so very simple - Doctor equals good, Master equals evil, therefore her priorities had been to save the Doctor and to kill the Master. Unfortunately, it was no longer that straightforward. Being in love with the Master was definitely going to complicate things.

_Oh, ya think? _mocked a sarcastic little voice in the back of her mind. _That has to be the understatement of a lifetime!_

The Doctor, Jack and Martha had been angry enough about her choice years after this had all happened. But trying to explain it to them in the middle of it all, while the Master was still reigning as supreme dictator – hoo boy, just thinking about it made her head hurt. But somehow she had to let the Doctor know about the temporal displacement. They had to find a way to stop the Master, before he changed the future forever.

Eventually, sheer exhaustion forced her to sit down on the narrow bunk, her limbs leaden with weariness. She was absolutely starving, her stomach echoing like a bottomless pit. Reluctantly, she eyed the tray sitting at the end of the bed. It had been delivered by the black-clad guards shortly after the Master had left. At the time, she had been far too angry to eat. Even now, having calmed down a bit, she was still loath to accept anything the Master gave her, just out of principle. With a shiver, she realised she was automatically falling back into the same old thought patterns that had characterised her original imprisonment on _The Valiant_.

Tentatively, she lifted the covers on the tray, revealing a delicious-looking gourmet meal. Her traitorous stomach growled in appreciation at the tempting aromas drifting through the air. This at least was different. In the old days, her meals had been adequate but certainly less than stellar. For one last moment, she hesitated. But then her hunger won and she began to wolf the food down, not stopping until the plates were empty.

The hours dragged by after that. Or, at least, she assumed they did. It was not easy to tell, trapped in this windowless cubicle. She wished she was wearing a watch. Ironic really, a Time Lady who had no idea what the time was.

Dully, she wondered what the Master was doing. Try as she might, she couldn't rid herself of the gut-wrenching thought that perhaps he was with Lucy. After all, in this time-line, he was still a married man. _Sweet Lucy Saxon, his ever-faithful. _One of the many drawbacks of being imprisoned was the huge amount of time you had to think. And to imagine. Against her will, she found herself remembering the passionate kisses the Master had openly given Lucy back then, on the flight deck of _The Valiant, _in front of them all. Suddenly, she couldn't stop picturing him in bed with his beautiful blonde wife, right now, touching her, making love to her. The vivid images made her feel sick to her stomach, the rich, gourmet food she had recently consumed threatening to make an abrupt reappearance.

Tejana had never been jealous over a man before. She had never really cared enough for anybody, not in that way, so there had never been a need. While she had always been happy to enjoy a physical relationship with a man, emotional intimacy was a whole other kettle of fish. She had never really understood why, but it had never bothered her. When she thought about it at all, she supposed it had something to do with the strange loneliness she had experienced when she looked into the Untempered Schism. Or, perhaps, the abuse she had suffered at the hands of Councillor Rohan, long ago on Gallifrey. Either way, falling passionately in love had never been her thing. While she had cared for Turlough and had ostensibly been in a committed relationship with him, she wasn't sure it would have disturbed her much if he had spent time with other women. As for the long-running flirtation she had enjoyed with Jack – well, Jack was Jack, enough said...nobody in their right mind would waste time being jealous over his innumerable liaisons.

But this...oh, this _hurt_, it hurt so much. Just thinking about the Master being with someone else made her want to punch the wall until her knuckles bled. And she didn't like it, not one bit. It was so undignified, so humiliating...the last daughter of Gallifrey, jealous of a _human_. And over _the Master_. Oh gods, the Tejana from this time-line would never for a single second believe that one!

Bitterly, she heard the Doctor's words echoing in her mind: _You can't trust him, Tejana! Whatever happened between you in The Matrix, it was a lie. Everything he does is a lie! You've known him all your life, you know that._

Had her father been right after all? Perhaps the Master had been using her all along. _Was_ it all a lie, just another one of his diabolical manipulations? Had she stupidly fallen into one of his carefully-laid traps to hurt the Doctor?

Forcing back the sickening doubts, she jumped up and began once more to pace, the anger blazing up all over again, this time aimed at herself. This whole love thing was definitely over-rated, it was turning her brain to mush. She should be trying to think of a way to get out of here, not obsessing like a fool over the Master. The entire situation was completely insane. How could the twists and turns of Time have brought her here again, with everything the same and yet everything so unbelievably different?

Again, she could hear the Doctor's voice in her head: _That's the beauty of the causal nexus!_

Well, she was sick to death of the bloody causal nexus. In fact, right now, she was sick to death of being a Time Lord. She was sick to death of _everything_! Throwing herself back on her bunk, she buried her head in her uncomfortable, lumpy pillow, trying to block it all out.

_To hell with the causal nexus. And, most of all, to hell with the Master!_

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It was late - very, very late - and the Master was nearly dead on his feet from fatigue. He had forgotten how much work it was to run a whole planet. He had spent the entire day catching up on where his previous self had left things, as well as setting in train some necessary precautions to Doctor-proof his fifteen Archangel satellites, no easy task with the limited technology available to him on this backward planet. Not to mention dealing with the Toclafane, pressuring him for an update on the rocket construction. That was another thing he had forgotten – how irritating their child-like voices and simple thought processes were when he was tired. Consequently, his jubilant mood of the morning had disappeared, leaving him in a foul temper.

He stalked down the corridor, faithfully shadowed by his two body-guards. This time around, he was taking no chances with his personal safety – he was making certain that there would be no assassination attempts. As he walked, he tried to stretch his cramped neck muscles, feeling constricted within the unaccustomed collar and tie. He had changed into one of the expensive tailored suits belonging to his earlier self as soon as possible after arriving. After all, image was everything. He could hardly conquer the Universe dressed in a hoodie and jeans, no matter how comfortable they were. There wasn't much he could do about his anachronistic blonde hair at such short notice. But one of the major advantages of being a ruthless, tyrannical dictator was that nobody tended to question you, no matter what you did. There had been quite a few sideways glances from his minions, but no-one had dared to say anything about his new image.

Now all he wanted to do was to sleep. Time Lords could go for a long time without rest, but he hadn't had a proper sleep since leaving the Eye of Orion and he was exhausted. Nonetheless, he wasn't heading for his luxurious state room with its king-size feather bed. Instead, his steps led downwards, into the bowels of the mighty ship, where the cells were located.

Ana had been furious when he had left her and he had no reason to think that her mood might have improved, especially since he had unexpectedly taken so long to return. However, the less she knew about what he was up to, the better. He knew she had far too much of her father in her to meekly accept her new situation and he couldn't take the risk that she would somehow find a way to sabotage his plans. Once his empire was in place, things would be different. But until then, he needed to keep a tight rein on her. He had no doubt that she would be still be angry, but she would just have to bloody well get over it. He was damned if he would sleep without her in his arms, tonight or any other night.

Once he arrived outside her cell door, one of her guards leapt to unlock it for him with satisfying alacrity. _Oh, it was definitely good to have people grovelling to him again_. Gesturing for his bodyguard to remain in the corridor, he entered the cramped little room, wearily bracing himself for yet another fiery confrontation. It was immediately apparent, however, that he needn't have worried. Overcome by her own fatigue, Tejana was already fast asleep on the narrow bed, her mass of dark curls tumbling haphazardly over the pillow.

She was so beautiful. For a moment, he just stood and watched her, feeling an unexpected tenderness welling up inside him. Why was it that sleep always made people look so vulnerable? Unable to help himself, he reached out and gently stroked her flushed cheek. Tejana sighed, unconsciously nestling closer to his hand.

"Koschei," she murmured softly.

Hearing her call his name in her sleep, he felt a stab of possessive pleasure. Angry or not, she still belonged to him, even in her dreams. Taking off his jacket, tie and shoes, he climbed on to the uncomfortable bed, his arm sliding around her waist, pulling her hard against his body. Tejana stirred briefly, but did not wake, instinctively curling herself even closer to his warmth. The Master gave a satisfied smile and shut his eyes.

_Now_ he could sleep.

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Some time later, the guards outside Tejana's cell were getting restless. It had been several hours since the Master had gone inside and he still had not emerged.

"What if something's happened?" muttered one of the Master's body-guards, a tall, thin man named Marco.

The other body-guard, a stocky, well-muscled man named Joe, shrugged. "Oh, like what? It's not as if that little slip of a thing's gonna get the jump on him, is she? They're probably just...well, you know...getting friendly. After all, the Master does like a pretty woman."

"And what if they're not?" Marco retorted worriedly. "He's never shown that sort of interest in her before. They say that she's an alien, just like him. And she's made no secret of the fact that she hates his guts. Who knows what she's capable of? You want to take the risk? You want to be the one to explain to the Toclafane how we let the Master get killed?"

Damon and Peter, Tejana's two guards, exchanged a nervous glance at the mention of the deadly spheres. Damon, a young good-looking man in his early twenties, put his ear to the door. "I can't hear anything," he reported.

"We should look," Marco insisted.

But Joe was still undecided. Everyone on _The Valiant _knew that if the Master wasn't happy, bad things tended to happen. Very, very bad things.

"And what if there's nothing wrong? The Master's been acting peculiar all day – well, peculiar even for him. Believe me, it's not a good day to chance his mood! If he's having some private time with the girl, he's not gonna appreciate us sticking our noses in."

"It's our job to be careful!" Marco argued. "And I say we should look."

Damon sighed as the other two men continued to bicker back and forth, getting nowhere. He knew it was no use asking Peter for his opinion. The older man was taciturn to a fault, rarely saying a word at the best of times. He was hardly going to make a decisive contribution to the argument. That left it all up to Damon. Making a swift executive decision, he pulled back the bolt securing the door and, as silently as possible, cracked it open wide enough to peek inside. To his immense surprise, he was treated to the unexpected sight of the high-and-mighty Master fast asleep on the narrow prison cot, his arms protectively around the dark-haired girl, her head pillowed on his chest as she too slept. Even more surprisingly, both of them were fully-clothed, with no evidence that anything had been on the Master's agenda when he entered the room except sleep.

Behind him, Damon felt the other guards craning for a look, taking in the curious scene over his shoulder. Quickly, he shut the door and locked it again, before they gave themselves away.

"He came down into this rat-hole to _sleep_?" the young guard exclaimed incredulously, staring at his colleagues. "What do you make of that?"

"Nothing!" the normally-silent Peter said roughly, startling everybody. "We don't make nothing of it, because we didn't see nothing. And neither did you, boyo, if you have any sense, unless you want to end up at the wrong end of a laser screwdriver."

Damon knew his friend was right. The Master was ruthless and notoriously unpredictable. He also had spies everywhere. It was definitely not healthy to openly express an unwarranted interest in his business. But even as they all went back to their guard duty, he couldn't help thinking of the odd scene and wondering what it might mean.


	2. Chapter 2

**_Author's Note: Wow, thanks for the big welcome back everyone. So lovely to have such great passengers on my "Ship of Dreams", LOL! Big wave to all my reviewers: Omniac (as always, you rock), iLuvTwiBoyz, OhTex (yay, you're following one of my stories), xxCoffee-and-Creamxx (another massive review catch-up, you are amazing), Aietradaea (hope your exams are treating you well), Kaylie S, MayFairy, GallifreanGirl, KlinicallyInsaneKoschei (glad I got you whooping for joy, hee hee), Beautiful Rogue and babybluepineapple (please don't hunt me down and kill me, LOL). I officially love you all!  
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**CHAPTER 2**

**_- The Hub, _March 2013 -**

Tejana had absolutely no idea what had happened. She gazed blankly around, her mind whirling in confusion. Just a moment ago, it had been early morning on _The Valiant_. The dim lights had just come on in her cell, heralding the start of another long and dismal day at the Master's mercy. She had been expecting the imminent arrival of her guard with her usual unappetising breakfast, before being escorted to the flight deck, where she and the Doctor always spent the daylight hours. The Master seemed to relish having them on hand to see his plan unfolding, delighting in explaining every last detail, gloating over their inability to stop him. That was nothing new – throughout the centuries, his massive ego had always demanded an audience and there was none he liked better than his old enemy and his daughter.

But now, in the wink of an eye, she had been transported somewhere completely different. It was a huge space, full of work-stations and computer technology. For some reason, the place reminded her of a subterranean railway station, all concrete and tiles and mesh flooring. In the centre of the room was a large column stretching all the way up to the ceiling, which appeared to be at least three stories above the floor. Water trickled constantly through this edifice with a musical tinkling sound, as though it was some sort of bizarre water feature. But strangest of all was the distinctive aura of temporal energy emanating from it in a gentle glow. Tejana had never set foot in this place before, but from Jack's descriptions of his workplace, she had no trouble guessing that she was currently standing in the Torchwood Hub, in front of the Cardiff Space/Time Rift.

Immediately her eyes were drawn to a young man standing nearby, a shocked look on his face. He appeared to be in his middle twenties, with floppy brown hair falling boyishly over his forehead and a tall, slim build. Oddly, the clothes he was wearing seemed more suited to an eccentric old professor than a young man – a brown tweed jacket with elbow patches, matching red bow tie and braces, dark trousers rolled up at the bottom and black boots. Tejana stared hard at him, suddenly realising that, while the face and body were definitely unfamiliar, the man himself was no stranger.

"_DOCTOR_?" she exclaimed in amazement.

At the same moment, another voice beside her said exactly the same thing, in precisely the same incredulous tone. Swinging around, she saw that she was standing beside the Master, the stunned expression on his handsome face showing that he was as bewildered as she by the surreal turn of events. Tejana couldn't help feeling a sudden flash of hope. Surely something that took the Master by surprise could only be a good thing – especially if that something involved the Doctor, even if it was an incarnation of the Doctor she hadn't met yet.

"Oh, Master," the Doctor murmured, almost as if he was speaking to himself, rather than to the two people in front of him. "What have you done now?"

The Master's eyes narrowed. "I have no idea what you're talking about. Whatever this is, I haven't done anything to cause it! But you'd better start coming up with some answers fast, _Doctor_, or you're going to be minus one lovely daughter!"

Before the Doctor could react, the other Time Lord had seized Tejana, his arm around her throat like a band of iron, his laser screwdriver aimed directly at her head. Tejana tensed, forcing herself to remain still, despite the instinctive urge to struggle. She had no doubt that if he felt threatened, the Master would kill her without a second thought.

"Now then," he snapped, his attention focused keenly on the Doctor. "Where the hell are we?"

"Just calm down, Master," the Doctor said in a conciliatory tone.

"Yeah, yeah, _just stop, Master, just think_ – I've heard it all before from the other you," the Master snarled. "It was boring then and it's boring now. Just answer the question!"

"You're in Cardiff, in the Torchwood headquarters," the Doctor answered evenly.

"And you've regenerated again," the Master said. "So come on then, surprise me, _when_ are we? And how did we get here? Don't even think about messing me around, Doctor, because I _will_ kill her."

As he spoke, he tightened the pressure around Tejana's throat, intentionally constricting her air supply. Her hands flew to his arm, tearing uselessly at it with her fingernails, trying to loosen it enough to allow her to breathe.

"It's March 2013," the Doctor responded hurriedly. "The Master from this time-line has apparently decided it would be a good idea to use the Rift to perform some sort of Reciprocal Temporal Displacement. I assume that he and the Tejana from this time-line have been sent back to 2008, while you two were transported here."

"You're telling me I did this?" the Master scoffed, an underlying panic threading through his voice now, as his sharp mind began to put two and two together. "Why would I need to do that? What happened to my empire? _The Valiant_? The Toclafane? If it's five years into the future, I should be ruling the Universe by now. _What the hell happened, Doctor?_"

"You lost," a cold, hard voice said unexpectedly in his ear – almost as cold and as hard as the gun suddenly nudging the back of his head. "And now you're on _my_ turf, big fella, so I suggest you let Tejana go. _RIGHT NOW_!"

A sneer crossed the Master's face as he recognised the voice. "Captain Freak! I should have known you wouldn't be too far away. Still following the Doctor around like a lost puppy dog, I see. Pathetic as ever!"

"Drop the screwdriver!" Jack ordered harshly.

"I can still kill her," the Master spat. "You can't stop me."

"Yeah and it'll be the last thing you ever do, because I will blow your head off. Good luck regenerating after that!"

The Master hesitated for a moment, weighing the odds up in his head, knowing that Jack meant every word. Then, making his mind up, he released his hostage, thrusting her roughly away as his hands rose into the air in a gesture of surrender, the screwdriver dropping to the floor with a clunk. Without taking his eyes off the Master, Jack kicked the weapon over towards the Doctor, who picked it up and put it in his pocket.

Tejana doubled over, gasping for air, the jagged inhalations tearing at her bruised wind-pipe. Managing to glance up, she saw the tall familiar figure in the long greatcoat standing behind the Master, his gun unwaveringly pressed up against the Time Lord's head.

"Jack!" she exclaimed hoarsely, a flood of joy surging through her veins. Back in her time-line, she hadn't seen Jack for over a month. Like her, he was the Master's prisoner, only for him it was infinitely worse, as he was kept chained like an animal in the boiler room of _The Valiant, _completely segregated from everyone else_. _There were rumours amongst the guards, picked up and passed on by the Jones family, that he was regularly killed over and over for the Master's entertainment. On the rare occasions when Tejana did manage to speak to him for a few precious moments, he would never confirm the stories, completely refusing to discuss it, always glossing over the subject with a cheerful joke. But she had seen the shadows moving behind his eyes - shadows that hadn't been there before his imprisonment - and she knew in her hearts that the Master must be putting him through hell.

"Tejana, are you OK?" he asked now.

She couldn't stop staring at him, her eyes glistening with incredulous tears. Oh gods, could this really be true? Was this really the future – the Doctor and Jack safe, the Master defeated once again? Perhaps she had fallen asleep once more and was really dreaming this, lying on her hard prison bunk back on _The Valiant_. If her hands hadn't been manacled together, she would have pinched herself to make sure.

"Oh Jack," she cried. "I'm so happy to see you!"

"Well, that makes one of us," the Master interjected sarcastically.

Jack grabbed a chair and slammed it down next to the Time Lord, before forcibly thrusting him down on to it. "Sit down, shut up and don't move. Trust me, after the day I've had, you don't want to push me. My trigger finger is very, very itchy!"

Then, flicking his gaze back to the Doctor, he added, "So now what, Doc?"

The Doctor sighed. "_That _is a very good question!"

"Yeah, which is exactly what people always say when there is no answer!" Jack retorted impatiently.

Just then, the door opened and Tejana saw two women enter the room. The one on the left, with the long red hair and the bandaged shoulder, she was sure she had never seen before. But the other one was very familiar indeed. It was Martha Jones.

"Doctor, I've had a phone call," Martha was saying rapidly, her attention caught by the mobile phone in her hand. "UNIT need me in London pronto. I have to leave right away!"

One month ago, back in Tejana's time-line, the Master had assembled them all, Jack included, on the flight deck of the mighty ship and had made them watch the Toclafane descend on the Islands of Japan, each of them knowing that Martha was down there somewhere. Millions of people had died that day as the islands burned. In her memory, Tejana could still see the flames reflected in the Master's brown eyes as he had thrown back his head and laughed like the Devil himself. Since then they had received no word whether Martha was dead or alive. And yet, here she stood in the future, not only alive but clearly very well.

"Martha!" Tejana shouted jubilantly. "Oh, you did it! You made it! Oh, the Doctor was right, you _are_ brilliant!"

To her complete astonishment, Martha glanced up at her coolly. "Still here, are you? I thought you might have left with lover-boy by now," she said caustically, indicating the Master with a nod of her head. "So what's going on? And why's his hair suddenly brown again?"

Taken aback, Tejana frowned in bewilderment. _Lover-boy?_ What the...? That _had_ to be some kind of weird joke. But there was no sign of amusement on Martha's face, just a mixture of hurt and cold disdain.

"Martha!" the Doctor said warningly, taking a step forward as if to intervene. "You don't understand..."

"No, Doctor! Really, I'm over it!" Martha snapped. "If she wants to sleep with the Master, it's her funeral. I don't even care any more."

The Master's head shot up in surprise at this and Tejana nearly choked. _Sleep with the Master?_ She would rather sleep with a rattlesnake! Had Martha gone completely insane?

"What the hell are you talking about?" she snarled indignantly. "I wouldn't let him touch me if my life depended on it. Are you trying to be funny?"

"_WHAT_?" Martha shot back, outrage edging her voice until it was as sharp as a knife. "_ME_?"

"Martha, just stop," the Doctor cut in with firm authority. "Jack, I think you'd better take the Master downstairs to a cell until we work out what to do about this. Tejana, you and I need to have a little chat."

"But you can't tell her what's happened!" Jack argued. " We've just been through all of that with Rassilon! If she's from an earlier time-line, you'll compromise the causal nexus."

"Not this time," the Doctor said grimly. "If we can reverse what the Master's done, she'll go back to her own time and won't remember a thing, because none of this will have happened. If we can't and he manages to change the past...this future will never have existed anyway."

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"There has to be some mistake!" Tejana protested for the tenth time.

She was sitting on the edge of the desk in Jack's office, looking down over the floor of the Hub through the glass wall. Down below, the Doctor was crouched at the base of the Rift Manipulator, minutely examining a small device he had apparently discovered there. His new companion, Amy Pond, sat nearby and watched him with that fascinated expression Tejana had seen so many times before on the faces of his human companions. Martha had left to return to her posting at UNIT and the Master had been locked up in one of the Weevil cells in the lower areas of the Hub.

Behind the Doctor, Tejana could see two blue police boxes - the Doctor's TARDIS and the Master's TARDIS - standing side by side, identical in every respect.

_It can't be true, _she thought_, I would NEVER have travelled with the Master in his TARDIS. The very idea is absolutely ludicrous. There's no way things could have changed so much in five short years._

Then again, looking across at Jack, she suddenly wasn't so sure. Jack had certainly changed. She wasn't able to put her finger on it exactly, but something about him was very, very different from the devil-may-care Captain she had known. He was seated behind his desk, busily sorting through a selection of cypher-ident keys, a sort of advanced alien lock-pick device which he said had fallen through the Rift some years before. He was trying to find the right size key to trip the lock on Tejana's manacles, since it seemed the Doctor's sonic screwdriver was currently out of action for some reason.

"No mistake," he grunted. "Believe me, it's true."

"No, you don't understand, I _hate _him!" she said passionately. "I've hated him all my life. You don't know what he's like. _The Valiant _is just the least of it! The things he's done...you have no idea!"

"In 2008, you hated him. But in 2013, you love him," Jack said harshly, selecting one of the ident keys and fitting it into the manacle lock. "It is what it is, or so I've been told."

Tejana could hear a definite undertone of bitterness in his voice that she didn't understand. The Doctor had given her a brief run-down of the intervening years since they had left _The Valiant_, including her time with Torchwood, his regeneration, her sojourn in The Matrix and her subsequent relationship with the Master. But she sensed that there was still a lot that she didn't know, especially when it came to Jack. It was extremely frustrating – like having amnesia, only worse, since the reason she had no memory of all these things was not because she had forgotten, but because she hadn't even lived through them yet.

Finally Jack managed to spring the lock and the manacles clicked open, revealing the chafed skin underneath. Tejana sighed in relief, rubbing gingerly at her injured wrists to try and restore some circulation there.

"Thanks," she said gratefully.

He nodded briefly and then turned abruptly away. "You're welcome."

The implicit rejection in his voice stung Tejana like a slap across the face. His expression was so closed, so hard. Had the Master's torture done this to him? Or was there something more?

"Jack...what happened to you?" she asked softly, catching him by the arm. "You're so different to the Jack I know, so...changed."

He gave a snort of derisive laughter. "Easier to ask what _didn't_ happen to me."

"The Hub seems so empty...all the people you told me about, your team – Owen, Tosh, Gwen, Ianto...where are they all?"

"All dead, except for Gwen," he told her flatly. "And yes - it was my fault, all of it, if that's what you want to know."

Tejana's hearts contracted in sorrow, sensing the deep grief festering inside him like an infected wound. At this point in her life, she hadn't personally known any of the Torchwood team. But if she had worked with them after leaving _The Valiant_, she assumed that, by the time they had died, they had been her friends too.

"Oh, Jack, I'm so sorry," she said simply, reaching up to stroke his face in sympathy. She saw the pain flash in his blue eyes, felt him tense under her hand, as though her touch hurt him in some way. And then, without warning, he was kissing her, his mouth hungry and insistent against her own. This too was different. Not the kiss itself - Jack had always taken any excuse to steal a kiss – but the intensity behind it. It was avid and deep, with no sense of his usual careless, teasing flirtation, almost as though he _meant _it. Tejana knew she should pull away, but it had been so long since someone had touched her like this. After the long, dark night of the Master's reign of terror over the Earth, Jack's kiss tasted of the dawn, of hope and life and the future. There was no wild explosion of passion but, as she had never felt that with anyone, she didn't expect it. He felt so warm, so alive, his strength and solidity so safe and comforting, that before she realised what she was doing, her arms had slipped around his neck and she was kissing him back.


	3. Chapter 3

**_Author's Note: Thank you all so much for your reviews, you wonderful, wonderful people, you are all such an encouragement! And I know it's a bit of a cliche, but all your lovely reviews really do make me write faster, so thank you for that._**

_**Big wave for XxCoffee-and-CreamxX, OhTex, iLuvTwiBoyz, Omniac, KlinicallyInsaneKoschei, babybluepineapple, GallifreanGirl and Kaylie S.**_

_**Also, massive special wave for Beautiful Rogue and algie888, since I can't reply to you personally - it's really lovely to know you are on board for the ride!**_

_**And lastly, a quick hi to Strange and Sad Angel - don't know if you are still reading this, but just in case you are, just wanted to let you know that I miss your comments! XX  
**_

**_So, Earthlings, um...basically...end of the world...Oops, no, no, that's not it - I mean, enjoy the chapter!  
_**

* * *

_**CHAPTER THREE**_

**- Excerpt from the Diary of Lucy Saxon,_ The Valiant, _December 2008 - **

_Harry didn't come to our room again last night. I know that Time Lords don't need as much sleep as humans, but that's the fourth night in a row I haven't seen him. I know he is with one of his sluts, probably that stewardess Tania who flaunts herself around the ship like she owns the place. He no longer bothers to make a secret of his infidelities. In fact, it's the opposite. He openly parades his harem of women in front of me, clearly enjoying my pain and humiliation._

_I loved him so much. I gave up everything for him. I still can't believe it's all gone so wrong, can't help hoping that my Harry is still alive somewhere inside this monster that calls himself the Master. Surely, somehow I can change it all, make him love me again, turn things back to they way they were in the beginning?_

_There is no-one I trust on this ship. Even the prisoners on board – the Doctor, his daughter, Captain Harkness, the Jones family – even they have each other. I have no-one. I never thought I would need anyone except Harry. I never wanted anyone except him. Without him, I know that I am all alone and it frightens me more than I can say._

_This morning, I was so desperate to find out where he had been all night, I swallowed my pride and when Francine Jones brought my breakfast, I asked if she knew. I may as well have saved my breath. She told me that she didn't know. Oh, her words were polite enough, but the tone of her voice said that the only time she would care where Harry was would be if he was burning in hell. Her face is so cold, so hard. She hates me with her eyes. In fact, if hating was an Olympic sport – and if the Olympics still existed – Francine Jones could hate for Great Britain! This is what Harry has reduced me to – gossiping with the servants. My father must be turning over in his grave._

_I've never been a particularly intelligent person. When I was at Roedean, I failed as many subjects as I passed. In the refined world I grew up in, it never mattered. A woman wasn't expected to be clever – all that mattered was your family connections and your appearance, both of which were essential to making a good marriage. And make a good marriage I did, or so it seemed at the time. My family were over the moon, especially my father. Harold Saxon, up and coming young politician, the man everyone tipped to be the next Prime Minister. My mother always told me that the way to a good marriage was for a wife to anticipate her husband's every need, before he even knew what that need was himself. So I studied Harry, learned everything about him, noticed every habit, every quirk, down to the smallest detail. At first I did it because I loved him and wanted to please him. Then, later, after he became the Master, I did it to survive. I instinctively learned to read his state of mind, always alert to the lightning-fast mood changes that happen so often. I learned to dance attendance on him, to pre-empt his every wish, right down to the tiniest thing, such as when he wants me to help him on with his jacket or straighten his tie. I learned to recognise the way his brown eyes begin to burn when the drums are bad, the savage gleam which means he's about to hit me. I learned not to show pain when he hurts me, physically or emotionally, because that sort of weakness just increases his contempt. I've made many, many mistakes during our marriage, but still, at the end of it all, I am now the one who knows him best. And thus he – Harold Saxon - has become the only subject I ever excelled in. _

_After Francine left, I got dressed. I put on the new red gown, the sexy one with the low-cut front and back. Harry likes red. Red and black, his favourite colours. I styled my hair carefully, leaving it loose, flowing down my back, the way Harry likes it. He has a thing about long hair on a woman. He loves to bury his hands in it, feel the softness of it on his skin. I thought that maybe, if I looked just right, he might notice me again and forget Tania and those other tarts. Maybe, if I could manage not to make him angry, things could be the way they used to be._

_I must have been completely delusional to think I could make it better. When my husband did actually deign to return to our suite, I got a huge shock. I knew straight away that something had changed drastically, something was very wrong. For one thing, his hair is now blonde. I'm not sure whether I like it or not, it's just so different. Something has happened, but I was too afraid to ask what it was. No doubt it's some special Time Lord thing that I would be too stupid to understand and he would be angry that I even dared to ask. But that wasn't all - because I always notice everything about him, I also saw that he is no longer wearing his signet ring. It's strange - in all the time that I've been with him, I've never known that ring to be off his finger. He's paranoid to the point of obsession about it._

_The way he treated me was different too. It was awful. Needless to say, the red dress didn't work. He acknowledged me when he entered the room, one cold word, his voice full of loathing, "Lucy." But after that, his eyes just slipped over me, through me and past me, as if I wasn't even there. I'm used to him ignoring me, treating me like dirt, but this...this was creepy. It was as though I no longer exist for him, as though I was nothing more than a ghost, like I was already...dead. I would rather he shouted, rather he hit me, rather he did ANYTHING than disregard me completely like that. It gave me the shivers. I wish I knew what had happened, what has changed. Maybe then I would know what to do, instead of feeling so scared._

_He's gone again now. He had a quick shower and change of clothes and left again, heading for the flight deck as usual, I assume. I dread going down to join him, just as I dread it every morning, because I know THEY will be there. The other two Time Lords, the Doctor and his daughter. I hate them. Their eyes make my skin crawl. I hate them for what they are, for they way they look at me. I blame them for the travesty my relationship with Harry has become._

_The Doctor, once so young and good-looking, now old and decrepit, repellent with his wrinkled skin and sparse white hair. Harry keeps him like an animal, in a tent strewn with straw, forced to eat slops out of a bowl on the floor. When my husband rings a bell, he has to come out, like some trained dog – he has no choice, Harry has threatened to kill his friends if he doesn't. And yet, despite all of that, when he looks at me with those sunken brown eyes, all I see is a vast compassion. He feels sorry for me, pities me. I despise him for that. How DARE he feel sorry for me? He is nothing but a filthy, degraded slave and I...I am the wife of the man who rules the Earth. Soon I will be the wife of the man who rules the Universe. I don't need his pity._

_But that's not the only reason I hate him. I hate him for what he means to Harry. Before the Doctor came, Harry used to share everything with me. I was his faithful companion, his confidante, the only one who knew the truth about him, the only one that shared his world. Harry and Lucy, a partnership, an exclusive alliance of two, needing no other. I had never felt such a PART of anything before. I travelled with him to the end of the Universe. Together we watched the great furnaces burning, the last of humanity screaming in the endless night. I was the one who soothed him when the sound of the drums in his head drove him mercilessly. I was the one who listened to his plans, his dreams of a new Time Lord empire. And I stood at his side when he conquered the Earth and decimated the human population, betraying my own people for love of him._

_Now...now when Harry needs to share something, when he wants to gloat over his successes, when he makes his plans for the future, it isn't me he comes to, but that pathetic, beaten old man in the wheelchair. He spends hours sitting there, talking and talking and talking - sometimes taunting, sometimes reminiscing about the childhood they apparently shared, sometimes exploding in anger – it's as though he has some sort of deep-seated need to wring a response from the Doctor. But the Doctor never gives him that satisfaction, he just sits there silently, except for the nine words he repeats over and over - "I have just one thing to say to you". I have no idea what that one thing is, but Harry does, and it frightens him, because he never, ever lets the Doctor say it._

_And then there's HER, the Doctor's daughter. Tejana. Oh, I hate her too, so much. Like her father, she says nothing, sitting unmoving at the conference table on the flight deck, day in, day out, her hands manacled before her. But her thoughts reflect clearly in her haughty eyes – thoughts as different from the Doctor's as night is from day. No compassion shines for me there, just contempt, deeper and sharper than a knife blade. Traitor, those eyes say, parasite, betrayer of your own kind._

_Harry watches her. I don't think he even realises he does it. But, like I said, I know him better than anyone and I've seen it from the beginning, from the day he first took her prisoner. She fascinates him. His eyes continually follow her. Not in the same way he leers at the other women on board – although she is beautiful, with her long dark hair and deep blue eyes – no, it is something different. She is a Time Lady, last female of his race. He gives her something I have never seen him give any other woman, including me, his wife, his so-called faithful companion. He gives her RESPECT._

_The thing about Harry is, he's an expert in humiliation. He knows that true degradation exists in the small details, especially for a woman. That's why he forces the Jones women to wear those demeaning French maid outfits. That's why he insists that I always wear ridiculously revealing evening dresses, even during the day, my hair flowing long and loose. It's to sexually degrade and abase us, to show his power over us to the world at large, a subtle but potent tactic to prove that he owns us, lock, stock and barrel. But not HER, not Lady Tejana. He's allowed her to keep her own unremarkable, unrevealing clothes and I know why. Whether he's aware of it or not, he doesn't want her to be viewed as a sexual object by the other men on board this ship. And for that, I hate her._

_Once, soon after Harry took control of the Earth, I made the mistake of asking him why he didn't have them both killed. After all, they were his enemies, I said, wouldn't it be safer if they were dead? That question earned me my very first black eye from Harry, the first of many to come. And yes, for that too, I hate them. Because I know that of all the people on board this ship, maybe of all the people in the entire Universe, they are the only two that really matter to him._

_But, whatever my feelings, I have to go down to the flight deck. It's part of the daily routine Harry has laid down for me and there's nothing he hates more than having his routines disrupted. I will bear it all, just as I do every day. There's nothing else I can do._

_I just wish I could shake the dread in my heart, this terrifying feeling that something very bad is about to happen._

_

* * *

_

**- Tejana's Cell, _The Valiant, _December 2008 - **

In the end, it was the coldness in the air which woke Tejana. Crossly, still half-asleep, she felt around behind her, assuming that the Master had inadvertently pulled the covers off her in his sleep. To her surprise, instead of the other side of the bed, her hand came in contact with a wall. Abruptly, she sat bolt upright, her eyes springing open. With a sinking feeling in her stomach, she recognised her cell and the events of the previous day came rushing back into her consciousness.

She was alone, just as she had been when she fell asleep. Which was odd, because she could have sworn she had felt the Master's arms around her during the night. Obviously, though, she had been dreaming, since he wasn't here. Blazing anger rocked her again and she embraced it whole-heartedly. The liquid fury came to her rescue, made her stronger, helped her hold herself together. It was so much better than the hot, hurtful tears which she knew were not far away. There was no way in the Universe she would allow the Master break her like that, any more than he had the first time around, even if he _had_ left her here to rot.

She sat up and stretched her arms above her head. Strangely enough, despite her emotional turmoil, she felt very well rested. Usually she never slept that well without him.

Just then, there was a brief knock at the door. Surprised at this gesture of courtesy towards a prisoner, she said curtly, "Come in."

The door opened and in came a young man with dark curly hair, dressed in the black uniform of the Master's guards. He was carrying a breakfast tray. Tejana had never seen him before.

"Good morning, ma'am," he said deferentially. "I've brought your breakfast."

Tejana frowned. "Who are you?" she asked. "You're not my usual guard. Normally I have an older man who never talks."

"That would be Peter," the young man replied. "He's outside. The Master has ordered a security upgrade. You're to have two bodyguards at all times now."

"Oh really? _Bodyguards_? Is that what he likes to call you? How about plain, old-fashioned _prison guards_, as in the sort that are there to stop you running away?" she snapped sarcastically.

Her new guard looked somewhat disconcerted, as though he wasn't quite sure how to answer. Tejana sighed and took pity on him. There was no point taking out her anger at the Master on him. After all, none of this was his fault.

"What's your name?"

"Damon, ma'am."

Tejana stiffened, the name triggering an unwelcome jolt of bitter-sweet memory. "I knew someone called Damon once," she said softly.

_Damon. Oh, Damon, what happened to you?_

Damon of the House of Windcrest had been her childhood friend at the Time Lord Academy. When the Doctor had run away in his stolen TARDIS, leaving Tejana to be made a Ward of the High Council, Damon had been the only one who was there for her in her loneliness. Later, when her father was exiled to Earth, it was Damon who had comforted her after Councillor Rohan's abuse, the only one she ever told. But as they had grown older, their paths had diverged. Tejana had left to travel the stars with the Doctor, while Damon had obtained a post as one of the elite Matrix Technicians in the Citadel. The last time she had seen him, centuries ago, he had helped her prove that a traitor on the High Council had stolen the fifth Doctor's bio-data from The Matrix in an attempt to return the insane Time Lord Omega to physical existence. After leaving Gallifrey once more, she had never spoken to him again and she had never found out what had happened to him. She knew he had volunteered as a warrior at the outbreak of the Time War and she assumed he had died either on the front lines fighting the Daleks, or in the Citadel at the end, when the Doctor used _The Moment t_o destroy Gallifrey.

Damon, her friend, once so vital and alive, now just another candle-flame burning brightly on the Plains of Orion. Not only was he gone, but there was no-one left in the entire Universe to remember him except for Tejana. She was one of the last of the Time Lords, the only three who were left to speak for the dead. Sometimes the grief of that responsibility was too much to bear, transfixing her like the point of a dagger between her hearts.

She looked sadly at the young human who bore her friend's name. "Long time ago now."

Damon gave an uncertain little nod and then busied himself setting out her breakfast dishes. Tejana had been expecting the usual tasteless porridge she had eaten every morning during the Year That Never Was. Instead, she was served with eggs and crispy-fried bacon, hot toast with delicious curls of melting butter and a plate of tangy tropical fruit, together with a chilled glass of freshly-squeezed orange juice. At least it appeared that the Master didn't intend to let her starve.

"Enjoy your breakfast, ma'am," the guard said, before turning to leave.

"Damon, wait..."

He turned back to face her, his eyebrows lifted enquiringly. "Yes?"

Tejana swallowed nervously. She didn't want to ask, but she needed to know. "Did...did the Master come down here last night?"

Damon's eyes shifted awkwardly away from her own, to stare at the wall behind her, obviously uncomfortable with her question. "Yes ma'am."

"He spent the night here?"

"Yes, ma'am. He left early this morning, before you woke."

Hearing his answer, Tejana was once more torn between two conflicting emotions. Firstly, outrage that the Master had chosen to sneak away without speaking to her. _Rotten coward_, she thought contemptuously. _That's just so typical of him!_

But behind her wrath, she couldn't deny the warm, soft glow of relief that lit her hearts. He hadn't forgotten her after all. And he hadn't spent the night with Lucy. He had come down here, to this stark, cold little cell, to hold Tejana in his arms. Surely that had to mean something?

After she had finished her breakfast, Damon reappeared and informed her that he had orders to escort her to the flight deck. Tejana followed him out into the corridor, her double pulse quickening with anticipation. This was the familiar routine she had followed every single morning during The Year That Never Was. Which meant, if all else held true, she was about to see her father. Maybe, somehow, she could find a way to communicate with him and together they could sort this whole thing out.

As Damon had told her, the other guard, Peter, was waiting outside. Silently, as was his habit, he fell into step with them, one guard on each side of her as she moved up the passageway.

Suddenly, the small hairs on the back of her neck stood up, a cold draught seeming to swirl around her ankles. Something was behind her, something was watching her, something..._wrong_. Whirling around, she stared back up the corridor, apprehension clutching at her. Out of the corner of her eye, she thought she saw something dark skitter away out of sight. Tejana shivered, twisting the psi-bracelet around on her wrist. _Was there something there? Or was it just her over-wrought imagination? _Without the sixth sense, she felt cut off and very vulnerable. But she could see that the corridor was completely empty and very well-lit. There was nowhere for anything to hide.

"Is everything all right, ma'am?" Damon asked worriedly.

"Fine," Tejana replied abstractedly, her eyes scanning the unremarkable passageway one more time. Then, telling herself to stop being an over-imaginative idiot, she turned her back on the empty corridor and smiled at him. "Except for one thing."

Damon looked anxious. "Yes?"

"Will you _please _stop calling me ma'am! My name is Tejana."

He grinned, his face creasing in cheerful relief as they began to walk again. "Yes, ma'am. I mean...Tejana."

* * *

_MY NAME IS LEGION, FOR WE ARE MANY._

_BORN OUT OF CHAOS AND STORM AND DARKNESS, BANISHED ONCE BEFORE FROM THIS WAKING WORLD, WE HAVE RETURNED._

_WE WATCH HER WALK AWAY FROM US. WE KNOW HER FOR WHAT SHE IS – ACCURSED TIME LADY, DAMNABLE CHILD OF GALLIFREY. WE HATE HER AND YET WE WANT HER, THE LAST DAUGHTER OF THAT ABHORRENT RACE._

_BUT NOT YET. WE ARE WEAK. THE HUNGER BURNS WITHIN US. WE REQUIRE A HOST. AND THEN WE WILL FEAST UPON THIS EARTH UNTIL WE LUST FOR SATIATION NO MORE._

_WE BRING CONQUEST, WE BRING WAR, WE BRING FAMINE AND WE BRING DEATH. PREPARE TO DELIVER UP YOUR SOULS, MANKIND, FOR OUR EYES ARE UPON YOU._

_AND LO, WHEN THE TIME IS RIGHT, THE TIME LADY WILL BE ONE OF US. FOR MY NAME IS LEGION AND WE ARE MANY._


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note: Hello again! Heaps more thanks due again this time - to Kaylie S, XxCoffee-and-CreamxX, babybluepineapple, MayFairy, OhTex, GallifreanGirl, Omniac, Beautiful Rogue and Aietradaea (x 2) - you are all amazing people and your comments are much appreciated!**

**On a slightly more serious note, I just wanted to make a comment about my character of Legion, introduced in the last chapter. I based this character on the demon Legion from The Bible, namely the following verse, _"And He (Jesus) asked him (the man), "What is thy name?" And he answered, saying, "My name is Legion: for we are many." Mark 5:9. _ It has since been brought to my attention that there are some other fics on this site who have also utilised this character name. I just want to make it clear that, at the time of writing, I was not aware of these other fics nor had I read them. Any character similarities are therefore nothing but a coincidence.**

**OK, with that out of the way, on with the story!  
**

* * *

**CHAPTER 4**

**- The Doctor's Cell, _The Valiant, _2008 -**

The Doctor was exhausted. Dragging himself from his uncomfortable bunk, he couldn't remember a time when his energy levels had been at such a low ebb. The Master's Lazarus technology had completely sapped his youth, draining him like a vampire leeching blood from the neck of his victim. With his regenerations progressively getting younger and younger, it had been a very long time since his body had been this old. His bones felt fragile, brittle and breakable, as if moving too abruptly might shatter them into jagged shards. His joints creaked, weighed down by the nagging ache of chronic arthritis, the insistent pain leaving his limbs shaky and unreliable. The luxuriant head of brown hair he had been so proud of had been replaced by a fringe of thinning, white strands, his scalp now balding and covered in unsightly blue veins. The skin on his face and hands, once so young and supple, was now like vellum, desiccated and dry, furrowed with deep wrinkles and liberally scattered with liver spots. Even his restless, intelligent brown eyes were now sunken and rheumy with age.

His mental fatigue was almost as profound as his physical depletion. He had spent the last six months concentrating on the Earth beneath him, intently focussing his mind in an attempt to tune in to the telepathic field generated by the Archangel Network. During his period as Minister for Defence, the Master had developed an insidious low-level psychic signal, utilising a series of fifteen satellites in stationary orbit around the Earth to broadcast the transmission across the planet. Initially, he had used it to manipulate the minds of the British people into voting for him, thereby guaranteeing his election to the post of Prime Minister. But after he had taken control of the world, he had increased the intensity of the signal, ensuring that the entire global population would fear him and remain subservient to his will. The Doctor's aim was to mentally infiltrate the Master's network, aligning his consciousness with the telepathic field and turning it to his own ends.

Like all Time Lords, the Doctor naturally possessed advanced psychic abilities. However, unlike the Master, he had never chosen to particularly enhance or expand them, preferring to spend his time pursuing more technological and scientific endeavours. Therefore the task he had set himself was a massive one, particularly when he was so physically debilitated, the effort sucking him dry of mental energy on a daily basis.

The Master's arrogance had always been one of his major weaknesses, the inability to see the potential in any race other than his own. He had always scornfully written the human race off as degenerate, stunted apes. Despite being blessed with his own share of inflated ego from time to time, the Doctor had still developed a healthy respect for humans during the centuries he had been visiting their planet. The Earth had a beautiful, spectacular rhythm of its own. Enabled by the augmenting technology of the Archangel satellites, the Doctor had found himself becoming part of an untapped wealth of psychic power unlike anything he had ever experienced before. Because, in the end, no matter what the Master did, there was one thing that the human race had that he could never take away.

_Hope_.

Magical and free, it wove through the terror and darkness of the Master's oppression like a golden thread, linking the humans together, drawing them into an alliance of faith in the face of despair. Glimmering under the horror and hardship, it whispered of dreams, of a better tomorrow, never allowing mankind to lie down and give up.

Amazed afresh at the resilience of the human spirit, the Doctor knew that he could do no less. As tired as he was, he had to keep on fighting. But not just for humanity's sake - it was much more personal than that. He had to do it for his companions. He had got them into this, now it was up to him to get them out.

He had to do it for Jack. The Doctor had more reason to feel guilty about Jack than any other companion he had ever had. Jack had willingly given his life in a heroic sacrifice during the battle against the Daleks on Satellite Five, only to find himself cursed with immortality as a result. To make matters worse, instead of trying to help him, the Doctor had done what he always did best – he had run away and left him behind. And yet Jack had repaid him with absolute loyalty, patiently waiting over one hundred years to find him again, only to end up aboard _The Valiant_, imprisoned and tortured on his behalf.

Then there was Martha. The Doctor was aware that Martha was in love with him. He pretended not to know, out of kindness, because he could never return her feelings. He never again wanted to go through the incredible devastation he had felt when he lost Rose. But, like Jack, Martha was now suffering because of her loyalty to him, walking the Earth on a lonely mission to tell his story across the world.

And, lastly, there was Tejana. Much to the Doctor's surprise, apart from imprisoning her, up until now the Master had largely left his daughter alone. She had not been tortured like Jack or even forced into menial labour like the Jones family. The Doctor couldn't understand the Master's behaviour and it concerned him. The other Time Lord had the perfect opportunity to hurt him by hurting Tejana. The Master had often promised to harm her if the Doctor didn't cooperate, but he had never actually carried through with any of his threats. The Doctor couldn't help worrying that she was being held in reserve for some reason – it was unlike the Master to show mercy. Then, early yesterday morning, he had felt his psychic link with his daughter suddenly severed, as though it had been cut. Tejana's presence in the back of his mind had been removed as cleanly and sharply as if it had been surgically excised. Alarmingly, neither she nor the Master had appeared on the flight deck for the whole day, a huge departure from the usual unchanging routine of _The Valiant. _Something had happened, something that wasn't good. He needed to find out what it was, as quickly as possible. He needed to know that Tejana was still safe.

Even as he anxiously mulled it over in his mind, his guard arrived with his wheelchair, just as he did every morning, ready to escort the Doctor to the flight deck. The Time Lord knew that the wheelchair was really one of the Master's sly little jokes, just another way to emphasise the Doctor's complete helplessness. He seemed to derive a huge amount of amusement from pushing his arch-enemy around the room, singing and dancing in his own peculiarly insane manner. However, much as the Doctor detested the contraption, he knew he was too feeble to walk such a long way without assistance. Sinking silently into the chair, he allowed the guard to push him away.

* * *

**- Flight Deck Lift, _The Valiant_, 2008 -**

Tejana, Damon and Peter stepped out of the lift on the flight deck level, only to find two Toclafane hovering in the air, waiting for them. Tejana could barely suppress a shudder. She hated the black and silver spheres – they gave her the creeps. They reminded her far too much of the Daleks. Once humanoid, now hideously mutated and integrated into an armoured metal shell, transformed into single-minded, amoral killing machines. _Familiar story, anyone? _The main difference was that the child-like Toclafane were unswervingly loyal to the Master - their Saviour, their Messiah – the Time Lord who had led them out of the cold and the darkness, back to the Paradise of their original home, Earth.

Tejana stared at the bobbing cyborgs, revolted by the thought that there were shrunken human heads concealed inside their gleaming exteriors.

Damon stepped forward and bravely addressed them. "What do you want?"

"We came to take care of the pretty lady," said one of the spheres in a male voice.

"I don't need any more taking care of," Tejana retorted sharply, not wanting them anywhere near her. "I already have two bodyguards."

"The pretty lady belongs to our Master," the other sphere replied, this time in a high-pitched female voice. "She needs to remember that."

Tejana felt a trickle of fear. "What does that mean?"

"Our Master commands you not to speak to anyone on the flight deck today," the female Toclafane instructed. "You will obey."

"Or what?" Tejana snapped, already guessing what the answer would be.

The male Toclafane gave a demented giggle. "Or we will fly and blaze and slice! Then the pretty lady will have no more friends," it chanted in an infantile sing-song voice, obviously relishing the prospect of further bloodshed. "Fly and blaze and slice. Fly and blaze and slice."

"All right, all right!" the Time Lady interrupted angrily. "I get it."

Damn the Master, he was always one step ahead.

* * *

**- Flight Deck, _The Valiant_, 2008 -**

When the Doctor arrived on the flight deck, he found that Clive, Francine and Tish Jones were already there, seated at the conference table, together with Captain Jack Harkness. The Captain looked terrible, his wrists weighed down by heavy chains. He was thin, almost to the point of emaciation, grim testament to the Master's experimentation with the effect starvation would have on his immortal body. His clothes resembled nothing more than a collection of rags hanging from his skeletal frame. The Doctor felt sickness rising inside him as he recognised sharp slashes in the tattered fabric which could only have come from knives, not to mention the deep scorch marks which betrayed the use of even more heinous instruments of torture. Sometimes, late at night, locked in his cell, the Doctor thought he could hear Jack screaming in excruciating pain in the distance, but he was never sure if he was imagining it or not. And Jack never let on exactly how bad it really was. Even now, catching the Doctor's eye, he gave him a cheeky wink, as if to reassure him that everything was OK.

Jack's presence in the room worried the Doctor still further. The Captain was usually kept in the ship's engine room, strung up like a slab of meat in chains, dehydrating in the constant heat and steam. He was rarely allowed to emerge. The Master was definitely up to something. As if to reinforce his concern, instead of ordering him inside his makeshift canvas doghouse as usual, his guard pushed his wheelchair up to take his place at the table. The last time the Master had gathered them all together like this was when he had forced them to watch the brutal obliteration of the islands of Japan. The Doctor couldn't help wondering what new horror would be in store for them today.

At that moment, Tejana came through the doors. The Doctor's eyes raked her from head to toe, trying to reassure himself that she was unharmed. He noticed straight away that her wrists were no longer manacled together, her arms swinging freely by her sides. In exchange, however, she seemed to have acquired a golden bracelet on her right wrist, which the Doctor immediately recognised as a psi-inhibitor. That at least explained the disappearance of their psychic link – but why, after six months of imprisonment, did the Master feel it was necessary? She was also surrounded by quite an entourage, with two black-clad guards trailing in her wake and two Toclafane floating close to her head, much to her obvious disgust. The Doctor's eyes narrowed. He had never seen the Toclafane in attendance on anyone except the Master himself. Why were two of them suddenly assigned to guard Tejana?

As she came closer, he realised something else. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but somehow, all at once, she seemed...out of place...wrong. The odd sensation was a fleeting one, gone almost as soon as it came, but nonetheless it troubled him.

"Tejana, are you all right?" he asked urgently, his voice hoarse and quavering with age.

With horrifying suddenness, the lethal blades and spikes concealed within the Toclafane spheres sprang free, transforming them instantly into deadly killing machines.

"Pretty lady belongs to my Master," the child-like female voice said sharply. "She does not belong to _you_!"

"No talking to the lady," the other sphere added maliciously. "Or we will fly and blaze and slice."

Tejana shook her head at him, as if warning him to remain silent. The Toclafane hovered close to her, rotating above her in a threatening manner as she took a seat opposite him. Deliberately, her eyes met his. Then he saw her gaze drop to where her hands rested on the table in front of her. As he watched, he saw her fingers twitch slightly. Realising what she was doing, he only just managed to suppress a smile.

_Oh, she was brilliant, his daughter!_

She was using the almost imperceptible sign language utilised by the Guild of Thieves on the planet Mahanaim. He remembered taking her there many years ago, not long after his fourth incarnation had been recalled to Gallifrey and she had rejoined him to travel in the TARDIS. Having been confined in the Citadel for so long, she had been insatiably curious about other planets and other races, soaking knowledge up like a proverbial sponge. By the time they had left Mahanaim, she had not only been fluent in the covert language of the Guild of Thieves, she had also been an accomplished pick-pocket, which had caused him more than a few headaches for a while.

The only problem now was whether he could remember enough to make out what she was trying to say. Her fingers flickered infinitesimally again, repeatedly forming the same four simple words.

_Not...your...me..., _the Doctor made out. Or, at least, he thought he did, since the message didn't seem to make any sense at all. Then the last word, which appeared to be a number. _Ten_.

_Not your me ten._

What in the name of Gallifrey was that supposed to mean?

Then the Toclafane dipped lower towards the table, as though they were growing suspicious. Tejana's hands stilled, resting innocently on top of each other, while the Doctor casually allowed his gaze to wander away from her to the other side of the room.

That was when the Master chose to make his entrance, also closely shadowed by a pair of bodyguards and two more Toclafane. As soon as the Doctor laid eyes on his enemy, he was once more assailed by the strange sensation of things being out of kilter. Like Tejana, the Master seemed slightly _wrong_, like a puzzle piece that didn't quite fit. He looked different too – not just his hair colour, which had unaccountably changed from brown to blonde – it was something about his face, his eyes. Something was missing.

The Doctor watched his nemesis advance jauntily into the room, trying to puzzle out what had changed. To his surprise, the Master's gaze immediately sought Tejana and the two of them exchanged a loaded glance that the Doctor couldn't understand. For a few seconds they were so intent on each other it was as if they were both unaware that anyone else was in the room. But then the Master grinned and headed for the stairs leading up to the control consoles of the ship. Turning, he looked down over the room with all the arrogance of a king surveying his realm.

"Ah, everyone here, I see," he said complacently. "Good. Because I have an announcement to make."

His smile widened as his audience looked at him apprehensively. "Oh, and don't worry, it won't take long – I know you're all just itching to get back to your usual exciting routines. However, I'm sure you'll all be pleased to hear that I've just implemented an upgrade to the Archangel Network."

Reaching across to the control panel next to him, his gaze zeroed in on the Doctor. "Allow me to demonstrate. It goes something like this," he said, before flicking a switch.

The Doctor screamed in absolute agony, pain exploding through his writhing brain. His body twisted into epileptic convulsions, shaking and shuddering until he fell from the wheelchair to land heavily on the ground, groaning in distress. In the distance, he heard Tejana and Jack shouting his name. Then he sensed the Master standing over him, looking down.

"What did you do to him, you bastard?" Jack demanded furiously, struggling with two of the guards.

"Psi-repulsion shields, built into the satellites to prevent anyone tampering with the telepathic field. Rather ingenious, really, even if I do say so myself," the renegade Time Lord said in satisfaction. "Bit of a rebound effect, was there, Gandalf? Perhaps that will teach you not to meddle with my Empire. Did you seriously think I didn't know what you were up to? I am the Master. I know everything. So you'd better get used to it – your pathetic, inadequate plans aren't going be enough to stop me this time. "

Raising his head and looking around at them all, he said coldly, "And that goes for all of you. Learn your lesson well. From now on, any kind of treachery, any kind of rebellion or insurrection against your Lord and Master will be treated with the utmost severity. And that includes the sainted Martha Jones, who I can assure you will be apprehended and punished very, very shortly."

Trapped in the wreckage of his ancient body, his mind on fire with pain as he lay helplessly at the feet of his enemy, his plan destroyed beyond redemption, the Doctor felt an unaccustomed wave of crushing despair. Perhaps the Master was right. Perhaps, for the first time in nine hundred years, he had won and the Doctor had lost.

Still smiling, the Master crouched down beside him and extended a white paper bag mockingly towards him. "Jelly baby?"


	5. Chapter 5

**_Author's Note: Hello everyone. Thanks so much to the following people for your reviews, I enjoyed each and every one:- Aietradaea, MayFairy, xxTeam-Masterxx, OhTex, iLuvTwiboyz, babybluepineapple, GallifreanGirl, Omniac and Beautiful Rogue (yeah, jelly babies rock!) I know I say it often, but I really do appreciate the time you guys give in both reading my fics and providing feedback._**

**_Another serious note (drum roll) regarding the rating of this fic - I have given it a 'T' rating because I generally prefer not to do 'M' stuff and the majority of this fic reflects that. However, I just want to warn you upfront that this particular chapter does have some sexual content. It isn't explicit (because I don't write explicit stuff), but nonetheless it is there. Therefore, if for some reason this might offend you, please feel free to skip this chapter. If you choose to read on, great, but just don't yell at me for not warning you._**

_**OK, now that I have probably scared away every single reader (sigh)**_**, _on with the story..._**

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**CHAPTER 5**

**- _The Valiant, _2008 -**

Tejana was not permitted to remain on the flight deck. As soon as he was satisfied that his message had been received and understood by his prisoners, the Master had given orders for her to be returned to her quarters. Realising she had no choice, she had obeyed, walking between her two guards without protest, the two Toclafane bringing up the rear. A sense of despondency weighed her steps, the scene she had just witnessed playing over and over in her mind.

The Doctor had shown signs of recovery just before she had left, much to her relief. Despite the psychic blindness engendered by the bracelet on her wrist, she knew that the rebound of energy through her father's mind as it deflected from the psi-repulsion shields must have been excruciating. She had not been allowed to go to him – as soon as she tried, the Toclafane began to circle menacingly, swooping and buzzing like bloated blowflies.

Tejana had no idea what to do next. At least during the Year That Never Was, they had always had a plan. Now there was nothing. The Master was being so careful this time, so determined not to allow any mistakes. She wasn't even sure if the Doctor had understood her coded message. Their trip to Manhanaim had been so long ago, it was possible he didn't even remember the sign language used by the Guild of Thieves. Even if he did understand, she wasn't sure the information would help. What if it was hopeless? What if, this time, they couldn't stop the Master starting a war with the rest of the Universe?

To make matters worse, she was so confused, she didn't even know what to think any more. Seeing the Master standing there on the flight deck, clean-shaven and dressed in an immaculately-tailored suit, had only complicated things further. It was so long since Tejana had seen him wearing anything except the black hoodie and jeans he had acquired in the wasteland on Earth, it was like looking at a stranger. No, not a stranger...it was more disturbing than that. Except for the blonde hair, it was like looking at Harold Saxon all over again, just as he had been during The Year That Never Was – Harold Saxon, the man she had hated beyond reason, the man she had tried so hard to kill. Her past was beginning to merge so seamlessly with her present that she was having difficulty keeping the two time-lines separate in her mind.

Then, almost as if Fate was laughing at her, the doors to the flight deck slid open and Tejana found herself face to face with Lucy Saxon. The human woman was undeniably gorgeous, dressed in a slinky, red satin dress which left nothing to the imagination, her blonde hair flowing down her back, her lovely, doll-like face immaculately made up. For an endless moment, they locked eyes in mutual hostility - the last Time Lady of Gallifrey and the spoiled younger daughter of Lord Cole of Tarminster – so different in appearance and origin, yet with so much in common.

_Two damaged women in love with the same damaged man_, Tejana thought bitterly, refusing to drop her eyes before Lucy's challenging gaze. _How did I ever let it come to this?_

In the end, it was Lucy who broke the impasse, her pale blue eyes sparkling with pure hatred as she skirted around Tejana and slipped unobtrusively into the large room beyond, moving cautiously as though she was afraid to be noticed. Watching her go, Tejana felt an unexpected flash of pity. Inwardly, she promised herself that the Master would never break her like that. No matter what he did, he would _never_ reduce her to the equivalent of a scuttling mouse.

Damon and Peter escorted her into the lift, heading back to what she assumed would be her cell. However, as they began to move, she realised that the lift was going up, rather than down into the Brig, where the cells were located.

"Where are we going?" she asked sharply. "This isn't the way to my cell."

"The Master ordered new quarters to be prepared for you, ma'am," Damon answered deferentially.

"I don't want new quarters!" Tejana snapped. "Take me back to my old room."

"Sorry, ma'am, but we can't do that," he replied apologetically. "Master's orders."

Tejana tensed in fury, her eyes sparkling dangerously. "Oh, and we mustn't disobey the Master, must we?"

"No, ma'am," Damon said seriously, completely missing the sarcasm in her voice.

"And I've told you before, stop calling me ma'am!"

"Yes, ma'am, sorry, ma'am."

She rolled her eyes in frustration. "Oh stars, never mind."

When they arrived at their destination, she realised that it was a state room, situated on the top deck of the mighty ship. Damon ushered her courteously inside. The rooms were nothing short of magnificent. Huge windows lined one whole wall, giving a spectacular view of the cerulean blue sky, dotted with fluffy white clouds. Golden sunlight flooded in through the glass, bathing the room in opulent warmth. There was thick, soft carpet underfoot and expensive, tasteful artwork on the walls. One end of the large room was set up as a sitting area, with large comfortable couches and chairs placed around a low table piled high with a basket of exotic-looking fruit. The other end of the room was dominated by a massive king-size feather bed, the luxurious covers already neatly turned down.

_Ugh, black satin sheets_, Tejana noticed, wrinkling her nose, pleased to find something she could criticise in the lovely room. She hated satin sheets. They always felt so _slippery_.

"If there's anything you need, don't hesitate to call me," Damon told her. "I'll be right outside."

_Yeah, to make sure I don't run away screaming, _Tejana thought cynically._ The Master knows me too well._

Then, as he walked to the door, she said, "Damon..."

"Yes, ma'am?"

"Um, where...where are the Master's quarters?" she asked hesitantly, wondering if these were his rooms, even though she could see no obvious signs of his habitation.

"In the other State Suite, on the other side of the ship," Damon replied, his face carefully expressionless. "With Mrs Saxon."

"Oh...of course," she nodded, her face flaming. She could just imagine what Damon must think of her. _The other woman_. She couldn't blame him. Back in this time-line, the Master had kept a whole harem of other women, so it would be quite reasonable for the young guard to assume she was one of them. The entire situation was such a bloody mess. "Thank you, Damon. You can go now."

Damon gave a funny little half-bow and ducked out of the room. From his expression, he was grateful to be released before she asked any more difficult questions. The door closed and she heard the distinctive sound of a key turning in the lock.

_It's still a prison_, the little voice in her head said dully. _More luxurious than most, but still a cell._

Somehow, the sumptuousness of the room made her feel dirty, as though she really was the kept woman Damon thought her to be. Not only that, she felt like a traitor. The Doctor, Jack and the Jones family were still confined below decks somewhere, enduring all manner of privation and humiliation. At least when she was locked in her miserable little cell, she had been able to keep her head straight about whose side she was supposed to be on. The thought made her head ache, as if the divided loyalties inside were trying to tear her apart.

With a deep sigh, she started to explore the room, even though it was too much to hope that there might be a way of escape. The Master was far too thorough for that. And even if she did escape, what would she do? Where would she go? Somehow she had to get them both back to their own time-line without causing a catastrophic temporal paradox. And right now, she had no idea how to do that.

Behind one of the doors, she discovered an extravagant bathroom, resplendent with smooth marble fittings, gleaming glass mirrors and sparkling gold taps. Enormous white fluffy towels hung enticingly on golden rails and several glass shelves carried a bewildering array of perfumed soaps and lotions. But most tempting of all to Tejana's eyes was the deep, luxurious marble bath-tub in the centre of the room. She looked at it longingly. Her skin felt incredibly grubby and grimy from traversing the filthy catacombs below the Isle of Avalon, her mass of black hair tangled and wild.

_Gods, how amazing it would be to sink into a hot bath and soak all her troubles away._

She knew she shouldn't. It would mean giving in, selling out, allowing the Master to win. Accepting his gift of luxury while the others were still imprisoned was just _wrong_. She closed the door firmly and went over to sit on the edge of the bed. But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't stop thinking about that bath. It seemed to call her name, as irrefusable as a siren's song. Without even realising what she was doing, she had opened the bathroom door again and was standing inside the room, staring covetously at the tub. Ashamed of her weakness, she turned to leave again. But then she caught sight of her reflection in the large mirror opposite. The tousled mop of hair, the dusty, torn clothing...she even had a dark smudge of dirt on her left cheek. Immediately, she thought of Lucy Saxon's cool, blonde beauty, so temptingly displayed in her sexy red gown. What man wouldn't prefer gorgeous, stylish Lucy over the scruffy, unkempt woman reflected in the mirror? Tejana felt another hot surge of jealousy blazing through her veins. That clinched it. She might never look as perfect as Lucy Saxon, but she could at least be _clean_!

Before long, she had blissfully submerged herself in warm, scented water, resolutely ignoring the little voice in her head which kept insisting that she was a turncoat, a betrayer, a hypocrite...

She spent a long time in the bath, before reluctantly climbing out and drying herself with one of the luxurious towels. Hanging on the back of the door, she found an incredibly soft, white robe which predictably was just her size. She also found a brush and a hair-dryer and spent the next half an hour taming her tangled mane of curls.

At last, still dragging the brush through her hair, she emerged back out into the main room, only to pull up short in confusion. The Master was there waiting for her, lounging back on the bed, evidently quite at home.

"In a better mood yet?" he asked mildly, his eyes lazily wandering over her.

Tejana's pale cheeks flushed with colour. All at once, she was very aware that she was naked under her robe. She had seen that glittering gaze far too many times before not to know what it meant.

"I suppose it would be a waste of time to ask if you had ever heard of knocking?" she said coldly, determined not to show him how much he unsettled her.

"Complete waste of time," he agreed. "_The Valiant _belongs to me. I go where I like, when I like."

The expression on his face as he looked at her told her clearly that _The Valiant _wasn't the only thing he considered to be his.

Suddenly, he sat upright. "Come here, Ana," he commanded in a low voice.

She stiffened mutinously. "No."

"Don't make me come and get you, because you know that I will."

She hesitated briefly, wishing she could defy him, hating the way he could make her want him in spite of everything. But then, seeing in his face that he meant what he said, she went over to stand unwillingly next to him. He pulled her down to sit beside him on the bed and unexpectedly took the forgotten brush from her hand. Silently, turning her around so her back faced him, he began to gently brush her long dark hair. At first, her muscles were tight with tension, intent on shutting him out. But very soon she began to relax under the slow, languorous strokes of the brush, her skin starting to tingle. _Oh gods, it felt so good. Damn the man, he always knew just how to touch her_. Her double pulse began to quicken, her breathing becoming erratic. Only the Master could take something as domestic as brushing her hair and turn it into an exercise in sensual arousal.

"So," he murmured in her ear, slowly sliding the robe from her shoulders as he spoke, exposing the bare skin underneath. "Are you going to say thank you?"

She could feel the warmth of his hands moving over her shoulders now, deftly massaging and loosening the taut muscles in her neck and back, making her want to moan in pleasure.

"For what?" she asked hazily, not really caring what he was talking about, just so long as he didn't stop what he was doing.

His caressing hands moved lower, unhurriedly easing the robe further apart as he went, sending sharp shudders of desire to her very core.

His lips brushed the sensitive skin of her neck. "For your new quarters. A bit of an improvement, yes?"

Despite the hot, liquid need pooling in her belly, Tejana felt a renewed burst of anger shattering the spell of sensual lethargy he had so skilfully woven around her.

"The words 'bird' and 'gilded cage' come to mind, actually," she shot back, defiantly pulling the robe back up to cover her shoulders. "It doesn't change anything, Koschei. I still want to go home."

The Master's hand tightened in her hair, turning her head around to face him. "As long as you're with me, you _are _home," he told her harshly. "And if I have my way, you will never be anywhere else."

With that, his mouth took hers in a kiss of fierce domination, pushing her backwards on the bed until he was lying on top of her. She tried to resist it, tried to hold herself aloof from him. But as always when she was with him, her body betrayed her, the elemental possessiveness of his mouth and hands filling her with a primitive need as old as Time itself. Her senses stretched tight, drowning in an enveloping sea of heat. She forgot that she was on _The Valiant_, forgot that she was a virtual prisoner, forgot about the Doctor and Jack and the Jones family. The only thing that she remembered was that she wanted him. The sweet fire that she had never felt with anyone else exploded deep inside her as his mouth explored hers, her hips bucking beneath his weight in helpless invitation. The Master felt her unconditional submission and groaned in pleasure. Sliding his hand along her right arm, he took hold of the psi-bracelet, the isomorphic clasp loosening and falling away. All at once the psychic link was back, joining their minds together, the connection filled to capacity with his hungry need, leaving her unable to think of anything else.

"I want you to feel all of this," he said huskily, his mouth returning to hers.

What happened next was slow, exquisitely and agonisingly slow - he made sure of that, expertly playing her mind and her body like finely tuned instruments, heightening and intensifying her pleasure until she wanted to scream, sure that she would go mad if he touched her once more, but knowing she would die if he didn't. And in the end, when he finally took her, they burned together in what felt like a swirling crescendo of white-hot flame, culminating in a shattering release unlike anything either of them had ever known before.

For a long time afterwards, passion now sated, they lay entwined together, neither one wanting to break the intimate contact, neither one wanting to confront the difficulties that still loomed like an insurmountable wall between them. But then the Master gave her one last kiss and snapped the psi-bracelet back in place on her wrist.

_Like a shackle_, she thought miserably, her body suddenly once more rigid with rejection. _Like I'm nothing more than his slave_.

She had spent twelve whole months confined in a cell on _The Valiant _during the Year That Never Was, but she had never felt more of a prisoner than she did at that moment, laying on that luxurious bed and watching the Master put his clothes back on. Back then she had relied on the sustaining solace of hate. She had hated him for what he had done to the Doctor, to Jack, to the Earth...now the only person she hated was herself, for loving him no matter what he did.

She remembered feeling such contempt for Lucy Saxon, dancing like a fool as her alien husband rained death and destruction down on her people and her planet. But now the Wheel of Time had turned and with hindsight Tejana recognised the hypocrisy of the moral high ground on which she had once prided herself. She was no different to Lucy - if anything she was worse. The human woman at least had the excuse of not knowing any better.

"_That_ didn't change anything either," she told him now, her voice hard and unyielding, self-disgust giving her strength.

The Master turned and looked at her, still buttoning his shirt, an odd expression on his face. "That depends. It might have changed everything."

"What are you talking about?" she demanded sharply, suddenly suspicious.

"I want it all, Ana, everything Rassilon took from me," he said tautly. "And that includes my son. _Our _son."

Tejana's eyes widened in shock as she realised what he was saying.

"You asked me why I was doing this, changing the past?" he continued. "Well, now you know. All my life, because of Rassilon, I've been on my own. But not any more. I will have you and I will have our son and _nobody_ is ever going to take anything from me again. There will be a new Gallifrey in the heavens and we will rule over it and the rest of the Universe together, as a family. I'm finished being the pawn in this game. From now on, I will be the _king_."

As he spoke, the stunning realisation hit Tejana with all the force of a freight train – despite the apparent evil of his actions, for the first time in centuries, the Master was actually not trying to destroy...he was trying to create. The drums were gone, but he was still being driven, this time by a need that was very different, but just as intense. He was determined to make a secure place for himself, a home, a family, somewhere to belong. Having found out that he had been manipulated all his life, he was obsessed with ensuring that it never happened again. And, being the Master, the only way he knew how to do that was to seek absolute control of everything, taking what he wanted without mercy, obliterating anything that stood in his way.

"Koschei, listen to me," she said urgently. "Please! You have to listen! It doesn't have to be like this."

But he was already heading for the door. "This is for the best, Ana," he answered inflexibly. "Once you hold our son in your arms, you'll understand that."

Then he was gone. Tears sprang to Tejana's eyes, her hand straying to the flat planes of her stomach, suddenly imagining the Master's child growing there. She remembered the pain she had felt at the Could-Have-Been-King's vision, seeing all that they should have shared together, and she knew deep in her hearts that there was nothing she wanted more than to give him a son.

_But not like this. Oh gods, Koschei, not like this! How can I bring a child into a world that's so twisted, so wrong? How can I let my son grow up with a father who understands everything about ownership but nothing about love?_

And laying her head down, she wept, her bitter tears staining the black satin sheets.

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_WE HAVE FOUND THE PERFECT HOST. SOON OUR POSSESSION OF THE BODY WILL BE COMPLETE AND THEN IT WILL BEGIN._

_FOR MY NAME IS LEGION AND WE ARE MANY._


	6. Chapter 6

_**Author's Note: Big thanks to everyone who gave me positive and encouraging reviews on the last chapter, I appreciate it immensely.**_

_**Extra-special thanks to the following people who sent me a PM:**_

_**babybluepineapple – for so totally getting my characters, you are awesome;**_

_**Aietradaea – for having an amazing sense of humour and for making me laugh even when I am cross (just so you know, I'm still contemplating sending Jack out for some hair dye);**_

_**Omniac – for being the most consistent and encouraging reviewer a writer could ever ask for, you just rock!**_

_**Apologies for the slightly longer-than-usual time between updates. As some of you already know, I have been seriously considering not writing any more on this fic, so I decided to give myself a bit of a "time-out". Also, my MP3 player has been on the blink and I can't write without music.**_

_**Anyway, here it is, hope you all enjoy...**_

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**_**CHAPTER SIX**

**- _The Hub, _March 2013 -  
**

Tejana sat on the floor of Jack's office, her back against the wall, her arms hugging her knees in a child-like gesture of comfort. She was alone. Jack had disappeared out the door, heading for who knew where. She wasn't sure he even knew where he was going – anywhere, she guessed, just so long as it was away from her. She had heard a rumbling, rattling sound not long ago, which she assumed was one of the outer doors opening. Perhaps Jack had taken his anger out into the outside world, trying to escape the claustrophobic tension of the Torchwood headquarters. Lucky Jack.

She gave a deep sigh, resting her chin on her knees, glancing around the darkened office. The Hub appeared to have gone into night-mode, with all the lights dimming and many of the systems shutting down. Through the glass wall, she could see the various console lights twinkling in the dark down below, like a field of tiny, multi-coloured stars, red and green and amber and blue.

An odd sense of desolation tugged at her, a hollow feeling which sat heavily in her stomach, inexplicably replacing the initial elation she had felt at escaping _The Valiant_. She didn't belong here. She didn't understand any of it - this place, these people. It was so ironic. She had spent months longing for an end to her captivity, only to now wish she was back there. At least in her time-line she could follow what was going on.

_Jack's kiss, warm and demanding...his tongue exploring, expertly teasing, the sensations he roused so very, very tempting...putting her arms his neck, holding him closer as his hands began to roam over her body...only to feel him pull sharply away, as though he had been burnt._

"_No...no, I'm not doing this," he gasped, taking a step back from her, as though he was afraid she was going to bite him. "You're not even real."_

_Tejana frowned, shaken and bewildered by his sudden withdrawal. "Excuse me?"_

"_My Tejana would never let me kiss her like that, because my Tejana is in love with the Master," Jack snarled. "You're nothing more than an illusion, a ghost of what she used to be. And I'll be damned if I'll start torturing myself all over again by wanting you!"_

_With that, he slammed out of the door, leaving her blinking in sheer confusion._

Sitting alone in his office, Tejana wasn't sure whether to be glad or disappointed that he had pulled back. After all, essentially he was right – nothing good could come of any involvement between two people from such divergent time-lines. Sadly, she ran the scene over in her mind again, remembering the pain on his face. Obviously, somehow, somewhere, her future self had hurt Jack very badly. Why would she do that? Jack was one of the most important people in her life. And, according to the Doctor, he was obviously destined to become even more important since she was going to leave the TARDIS to work here at Torchwood. None of it made any sense. It didn't seem fair that she was being judged on things she hadn't even done yet. Things she couldn't imagine herself _ever_ doing. _Why _did the causal nexus have to be so bloody timey-wimey? Ridiculously, she found herself feeling jealous of her future self. _ That _Tejana must have it easy – at least she had gone back to the past, reliving things she had done before, everything completely familiar, no surprises – piece of cake, really, compared to the rampant confusion she was experiencing in this time-line.

Wearily, she climbed to her feet and headed to the door. The best plan she had right now, the _only_ plan, was for her to help the Doctor. The quicker he fixed whatever the Master had done, the quicker she could get back to her own place in the space-time continuum. Not that she was particularly looking forward to spending time with the new version of the Doctor. Actually, he made her feel more out-of-place than everyone else put together. He was just so _different_ in this new regeneration – younger, less patient (if that was even possible), more abrupt, more eccentric in his mannerisms. It was never easy for her when the Doctor regenerated, but this situation went beyond weird.

She was a Time Lady, born with the ebb and flow of Time in her blood, well used to the unpredictable fluctuations of the causal nexus. But she had never encountered such a massive distortion in her own time-line. It was a Time Lord's duty to ensure that his time-line always remained relative to the causal nexus, never crossing back into his own past or straying into his own future, always following a strict chronological progression. Anything else was forbidden by the Laws of Time - for good reason, as she now realised. After all, if the Time Lords couldn't keep it straight, how could the rest of the Universe be expected to manage? She had never properly thought about it before, but she supposed that the disorientation she was experiencing now must be how their human companions always felt whenever they travelled in the TARDIS.

She went down the stairs and crossed the floor of the Hub. Two thin cables trailed from the device the Doctor had discovered earlier at the base of the Rift, running along the ground and disappearing into the doors of his TARDIS. The Doctor and Amy were nowhere to be seen.

As Tejana approached the two time machines, standing side-by-side, a painful lump immediately arose in her throat. Two separate songs hummed in her mind, so different and yet so similar, each TARDIS recognising and reaching out to her. The warm song of the Doctor's TARDIS resonated with affection, a soothing sound drawn straight from Tejana's girlhood. The sentient time machine had always loved Tejana second only to the Doctor himself and her lovely psychic harmonies were infinitely familiar to the Time Lady. Much more unsettling, though, was the fact that the Master's TARDIS also sang to her, a beautiful, complex melody inviting her in, welcoming her home.

_Home? How could the Master's TARDIS ever be her home? It was unthinkable!_

Ignoring the alluring call of the other police box, Tejana slipped through the double doors of the Doctor's TARDIS. Expecting to see the organic coral pillars she was used to, she pulled up short in shock. It appeared that the Doctor wasn't the only one who had undergone a recent facelift. Admittedly, the last time she had been inside the TARDIS, the console room had been cruelly distorted, cannibalised to create the Master's infernal Paradox Machine. Now, however, the interior of the time machine was incredibly different. It was much bigger and had three floors, with the hexagonal console located on the middle level, supported by what appeared to be a glass platform. The walls were copper-coloured, one of them inset with a large circular view screen, the others scattered with gleaming roundels. Tejana could see the Doctor bent over the console, fiddling with some instruments, while Amy sat and watched him. Hesitantly, feeling like an outsider in the TARDIS for the first time she could ever remember, Tejana climbed the stairs towards her father.

"Any luck?" she asked.

Instead of replying, the Doctor gave a sharp, sibilant shushing noise, raising his hand in a quelling gesture as he concentrated fiercely on the data spilling across the terminal in front of him. Amy gave her a sympathetic look and rolled her eyes, obviously having recently received the same treatment. Tejana smiled back, feeling her mood lighten. This at least was familiar. She remembered the fourth Doctor shushing her in exactly that same way, centuries ago. Suddenly she felt about three hundred years old all over again.

Eventually, her father looked up irritably and deigned to answer her question. "Nope, no luck. Not even a smidgen. Not even a smidgen of a smidgen, actually. Where's Jack?"

"Out, I think," she replied, her smile disappearing. "I heard that big, round door thing open, so I'm guessing he went that way."

The Doctor looked at her keenly, noting the shadow on her face, but deciding not to comment. "He must have deactivated the lock-down, then."

"What's a lock-down?" she asked.

"Never mind, long story."

"More mysteries," she sighed. "This place is full of them. I'm not used to being so out of the loop."

"Welcome to my world! That's how I feel _all _the time, travelling with the Doctor!" Amy laughed, her eyes lively with affection as she looked at the Time Lord. "But if Jack's opened the doors again, does that mean I can go and get some chips? I'm starving."

The Doctor frowned, indicating her bandaged shoulder. "Are you sure you're up to it?"

"Yes, Mum!" she retorted sarcastically. "Stop worrying, would you? Martha said it was only a scratch. And I'm going nuts in here with you um-ing and ah-ing over the console and being all crabby."

"It's a Weevil bite – hardly a scratch," he answered sternly. "And I'm _never_ crabby!"

Amy and Tejana exchanged a speaking look, their eyebrows raised high, which he could hardly fail to notice.

"All right, then," he said resignedly, his attention already back on the screen in front of him. "As long as you bring some back for me too. I don't mind a good chip. In fact, chips are fantastic – the English contribution to world cuisine, chips are."

"It's a deal," Amy said cheerfully. "Want to come, Tejana?"

Before she could answer, the Doctor cut in, the look in his eyes suddenly very serious. "No, she needs to stay here, so I know exactly where she is. If something happens to her in this time-line, it could send the causal nexus into a complete tail-spin."

"Guess that's a no," Tejana said, giving Amy a rueful look.

Amy nodded and made for the door. "See you later, then."

Once she was gone, Tejana focussed intently on the Doctor. "So, come on then, out with it. Exactly how bad is it? Please tell me you can reverse whatever it is he's done."

The Doctor shook his head slowly. "I don't think I can. The thing is, he's a genius. Absolutely stone-cold brilliant. He's achieved a flawless temporal transfer, leaving everything in perfect balance. If I try to reverse it and my temporal parameters are even fractionally out, I could blow a hole in the fabric of Time big enough to swallow the Universe. The only way to guarantee the correct parameters is to use the Master's original chrono-transponder to reverse the process."

"Which is no doubt safely in his pocket back in 2008," Tejana said, her expression grim as she realised how serious the situation really was.

"Exactly."

"I assume the device you found is a temporal amplifier of some sort, linked to his transponder via the Rift?" she queried. "Can't you isolate any of the initiating variables using that?"

"No, he's far too clever for that," the Doctor responded wryly. "The parameters were automatically wiped as soon as the transfer was complete. Without that chrono-transponder, my hands are tied."

"So what do we do?"

The Doctor looked thoughtful for a moment. Then he said, "There is one person who could possibly help us."

She shot him a puzzled glance. "Who?"

"The Master from your time-line. This device will ultimately be his invention – perhaps he knows another way to reverse the process."

Tejana gave an unladylike snort of derision. "Oh, and you really think he's going to help us defeat his future self? Not very likely, is it?"

"If the Master from this time-line succeeds in permanently taking his place back in 2008 and manages to changes the past, he'll vanish along with the rest of us when this time-line ceases to exist. I'm guessing that prospect won't make him too happy," the Doctor said with a crooked grin. "Won't know until I ask, will I?"

"Yeah, good luck with that," Tejana retorted, taking a seat on one of the yellow chairs and folding her arms, clearly indicating that her father was on his own with that particular mission. Unperturbed, the Doctor shrugged and disappeared out of the exterior doors, leaving her by herself once more.

_Way to go, Tejana, _she thought wryly to herself, _you sure know how to clear a room_.

Her eyes wandered idly over the TARDIS console. The Doctor had obviously been employing his usual hit-and-miss approach to maintenance, she noted with some amusement. Many of the Gallifreyan instruments had been replaced by other more common Earth items – a typewriter, a telegraph machine, a gramophone and a matched pair of hot and cold taps being just a few of the discrepancies which caught her attention.

Unbidden, she found her mind capriciously straying to the other police box. She couldn't help wondering what the Master's TARDIS looked like inside. _Her future home. _The Doctor had explained that the ancient time machine had once belonged to Rassilon - apparently, she and the Master had appropriated it during their narrow escape from The Matrix on the Last Day of the Time War. Finally, driven by a mixture of boredom and curiosity, she decided it couldn't hurt to go and have a look.

There was an immediate hum of approval from the time machine in the back of her mind as she cautiously entered. She wasn't quite sure why she was being so wary. After all, it wasn't as if the doors were likely to be booby-trapped or anything. She supposed it was just second nature for her to be suspicious of anything involving the Master. Later, she was to wonder whether it was because subconsciously she knew that what was inside would change her outlook on everything.

Standing just inside the double doors, she got her first glimpse of the Master's control room and she felt quick, hot tears spring to her eyes. It was heart-breakingly beautiful, like something out of a fairy-tale. The lustrous mother-of-pearl walls, the glowing crystal support columns, the delicate glass time-rotor column, the rainbow of iridescent, prismatic light refracting gently throughout the room...Tejana swallowed hard, slowly climbing the stairs up to the console platform, unable to believe what she was seeing. This was her dream TARDIS. It was as if all her secret wishes and childish fantasies had emerged from her mind and had been transformed into reality. But that was impossible! For the Master to have created this, for him to have reproduced her dreams so perfectly, she would have had to share her deepest self with him, things she had never shown anyone, even the Doctor. This was the sort of gift a lover would give, someone who knew her completely, down to the most intimate detail.

Stunned, she circled the hexagonal console, trailing her finger along the control panels as she went. Had they stood here, flying the TARDIS together, exploring the Universe as a couple? She and the Master? No, it wasn't possible. She knew she kept saying that, over and over again, in the face of all the evidence to the contrary, but she just couldn't bring herself to accept that she would one day come to love him, after everything he had done.

Her eye fell on the stairway leading up to the interior of the TARDIS. Uncertainly, she followed it, not sure she wanted to see any more of the strange life she had created for herself in the future, but unable to resist the curiosity that pulled at her. The first room she came to was a bedroom. Inside was a big, white bed. The sheets were a tangled mess, obviously having been abandoned in a hurry. Tejana stared at the two pillows, lying so closely side-by-side, each one dented where a head had lain. Without needing to be told, she knew her future self had slept here with the Master, his body hard against hers, his arms around her. Suddenly, before she could stop herself, a series of X-rated scenes scorched across her imagination – the two of them on that bed, their naked bodies entwined, his mouth on hers, his hands touching her everywhere...

With a gasp of shock, she took a step backwards, colour flooding her face as she felt the hot pulse of desire deep inside, stirring in primitive response to the erotic images in her mind.

_What was she THINKING? Was she mad? She was NOT attracted to the Master, not in any way, shape or form. The sooner she got back to her own time, the better – this place was obviously wearing away her sanity._

Hurriedly, she turned her back on the bed and rushed back down the stairs to the console platform, trying to marshal her chaotic thoughts, trying to make some sense of it all. On the circular view screen on the wall, she saw the Doctor emerging from the stairs leading down to the cells. His expression was grim. Tejana wasn't surprised. Obviously, just as she had predicted, her Master either wouldn't or couldn't help.

_Her Master? _she caught herself irritably. She meant, of course, the Master from her time-line. Although, it was strange really, if you thought about it – the only person here that she could really understand and relate to, the only one she had anything in common with, the only one that really_ belonged _with her, was the evil Time Lord confined downstairs in the Weevil cells.

Suddenly, without warning, she had a wild urge to see him, as if somehow it would help her make sense of all this confusion. It was a crazy notion, especially since she had spent so much time recently trying to escape from him. But once the thought had entered her mind, it wouldn't leave her alone. Hating the Master had been the one thing that had helped her survive the six months of captivity she had spent on _The Valiant. _It was something familiar, something tangible, something certain she could hold on to - and right now, she needed that, she needed it so badly. She had no idea what she would say to him and still less what she expected him to say to her. Nonetheless, she found herself slipping out of the TARDIS doors and quietly moving across the darkened Hub to the door the Doctor had just exited.

Descending the stairs, Tejana found herself in a long, dimly-lit corridor. There were no other doors, so she followed the passageway until she came to a metal ladder which led down to a lower level. It was strange to realise that all of this would one day be as familiar to her as the back of her hand. She had never thought she would end up living permanently on Earth again, still less working for Torchwood, of all places. And with Jack as her nominal boss! With a wry grimace, she wondered how _that _was going to work out. Tejana wasn't particularly good at taking orders, even from the Doctor, so the idea of taking them from Jack seemed more than a little bizarre.

As she had suspected, the ladder led down into Torchwood's holding cell area. The right-hand side of the room was home to four grim little cells with heavy, arch-shaped doors, complete with a small observation window in each. Along the left-hand side of the room were three slightly larger chambers enclosed by a clear, thick perspex wall perforated by a series of small circular ventilation holes. It was in the first of these cells that Jack had confined the Master. He was stretched out on the narrow concrete bed, his eyes closed, his hands under his head.

"What is this, viewing time at the zoo?" he said, sensing her approach without opening his eyes. "First the Doctor, now his lovely daughter. Buy a family ticket, did you?"

Tejana felt a comforting blaze of anger. _Gods, she hated him, she really did. _Moving over to the perspex wall, she slid the palm of her hand tauntingly down the barrier. "Maybe I'm just enjoying seeing the worm turn," she shot back. "You inside the cell, me outside. How does it feel, knowing that back in our time-line, at the end of it all, you lose?"

The Master smiled, the familiar boyish, white grin that had always sent ripples of dread up the spines on everyone on _The Valiant_. His eyes flicked open, focusing intently on her face. "So...are you going to tell me how it all happens? The Doctor won't let me in on the big secret. He seems to think I might manage to remember and use it against him when he finally manages to send us back to our own time. But I'm guessing he told you."

"You're joking, right? What makes you think I'd _ever_ help you in any way?" Tejana said derisively.

"Oh, I don't know..." he replied silkily, climbing lithely to his feet and coming towards her. "Maybe because, according to Miss Jones, we're going to be lovers very, very soon."

Tejana sensed the latent, menacing power inside him and almost backed away, before remembering the safety of the transparent wall between them and defiantly standing her ground. She dragged in a breath that was much too tight for her liking, the sensual tone in his voice sending an odd quiver through her body. "That's never going to happen."

The Master's grin widened, not in the least bit deterred by the icy rejection in her words. "No?" he mocked, giving her slender figure a long, thorough appraisal. "Are you sure?"

"I would rather stab myself in the eye with a sharpened pencil than let you anywhere near me!" she said venomously. "Especially since a couple of hours ago you nearly choked me to death!"

"Mmmm, just as I know you would quite happily kill me, given half the chance. Adds a bit of spice to the situation, don't you think?" His hand came up and he deliberately placed it against the cell wall, palm to palm with her own, with only the smooth perspex separating them, as if he was seeking her warmth through the hard, inflexible surface. "As for us becoming lovers, you shouldn't knock it until you've tried it," he told her, his eyes darkening as they lingered on her mouth. "For my part, I'm quite looking forward to it."

Tejana shivered under his gaze, her thoughts immediately returning to that big, white bed in his TARDIS. Her skin reacted, heated, prickled – as physical a reaction as if he had actually touched her. Desperately, she snatched her hand away and threw herself backwards, putting a large gap between herself and the cell wall. "Stop it! Whatever weird hypnotism thing you're doing, it's not going to work, so just stop it!"

The Master laughed, his brown eyes dancing. "I'm not doing anything. That, Tejana, is genuine, honest-to-goodness sexual attraction. And whether you like it or not, we've got it in spades."

Suddenly the room felt much too small. Without another word, Tejana began to retreat to the ladder. She needed to get out of here. She should never have come down here in the first place.

"See you later then, shall I?" the Master taunted. "Sweetheart."


	7. Chapter 7

_**Author's Note: **_

_**Hello all! Big thanks to the following people for their reviews:- Omniac, MayFairy, Aietradaea, GallifreanGirl, iLuvTwiboyz and OhTex - you are all amazing people and totally make this story worthwhile continuing.  
**_

_**Special hi to sakurachibi08, my new reviewer - I always love hearing the opinions of new reviewers, so I hope you continue to share yours - thank you very much!**_

_**Another special hi to Beautiful Rogue - since I can't send you personal thanks, I just want to say how much I appreciate your regular reviews, you are a star!**_

_**And lastly, a massive wave to babybluepineapple, both for your review and the lovely PM you sent me - cheers, mate!**_

**_So, on with the story..._  
**

* * *

**CHAPTER SEVEN**

**- Lower levels of _The Valiant, _2008 -**

The Master stood in the lift, heading down to the cells. One of the Toclafane bobbed happily in the air beside him. The Master ignored it. He couldn't see the point of making conversation with the child-like spheres. He spoke to them only when he had to, usually to give them an order. They seemed content enough with this arrangement. To them, he was like a god and anything he did was perfectly acceptable.

Night had fallen across _The Valiant_. It had been another long day. The delivery he had been expecting had arrived. All four items had been supplied in perfect condition, nothing damaged or broken and in complete secrecy. There was no chance that the Resistance would get wind of this particular plan, he had made sure of that. It was certainly very handy to have full knowledge of the things to come, very handy indeed. Soon, very soon, Martha Jones would no longer walk the Earth. She would be back where she belonged, with her friends, imprisoned and at his mercy.

He found his mind wandering back to his afternoon with Tejana, his body tightening with renewed desire at the memory of her slender white body against the black satin sheets. For him, sex had always been the perfect accompaniment to the drums, the driving rhythm of his body matching the interminable beat in his head. He had always savagely taken what he wanted and if he had caused pain to his partner, then so much the better. He recalled how difficult it had been to hold back with Lucy in the early days, how hard it had been to pretend to be the gentle, considerate lover. In the end, once the charade was over, he hadn't bothered – he'd done whatever he felt like, no matter how much it hurt her. But now the drums were gone. Now there was Tejana and everything was different. He had no wish to hurt her, his beautiful Ana. Quite the opposite, in fact. He loved to ignite the fire inside her, feeling her shudder in desire beneath him, knowing he could make her need him beyond all rational thought. Giving her pleasure was like some sort of drug to him. The more she responded to him, the more she gave him, the more he wanted her.

He sighed, rubbing at his temples, trying to ease the nagging headache which had recently taken up residence there. He knew that if Ana found out what he was doing right now, she would hate him all over again, just like she had during The Year That Never Was. Which was why he would make sure she didn't find out. Sequestered in her luxurious room on the top level of the ship, the psi-bracelet safely in place around her wrist, it was easy enough to keep from her the things she didn't need to know. Oddly, despite everything going so perfectly with his plan, he sometimes found himself missing the quiet time they had spent together in his TARDIS, just the two of them. He couldn't help wondering if the loss of the drums had somehow weakened him. It both surprised and disturbed him how much he was needing to steel himself to his forthcoming task, when once he would have savoured it like a fine wine.

At last, he reached the door of the grim little interrogation room. His eyes flicked towards the guard standing at attention outside the door. "Is everything ready?"

"Yes, Sir," the guard answered with a smart salute. "Everything has been prepared as you requested, Sir."

The Master nodded and stepped through the door. Jack was already there, kneeling on the floor, his arms chained behind his back, flanked by two more guards. The Time Lord walked around to stand in front of him.

"Wondered when you were going to turn up, big fella," the Captain said, eyeing him insolently. "Where've you been? I missed you the last couple of days. Although, I've gotta say, I'm not convinced about the whole image change thing. You do know the Billy Idol look went out in the Eighties, right?"

The Master gave a taut smile. However much he hated the Freak, he had to admire him too – six months of torture and yet he still came out fighting. The man had guts. But he also had his weak spots, as the Master had good reason to know.

Crouching down in front of his prisoner so that they were face to face, he said malevolently, "As it happens, I've been busy, Freak. After all, as fun as our sessions are, they're still not quite as enjoyable as the time I've been spending lately with Tejana."

Much to his satisfaction, Jack's head jerked up, his blue eyes sparking with rage. "What have you done to her, you bastard? If you've laid one finger on her..."

The Master smirked. "Oh, I've laid much more than a finger on her, Jackie-boy. You could say we've become very, very close indeed."

Jack lunged at him, snarling like a rabid dog, only to be pulled up short by the heavy chains on his wrists and the swift intervention of the guards.

"I'm sorry, did I hit a nerve?" the Master mocked. "Don't you want to know what it's like? I can tell you, if you want. Go on, admit it, I bet you're curious. Wouldn't you like to know how it feels to kiss her, how it feels to touch her? Her skin is so soft, Jack, you have no idea."

"SHUT YOUR MOUTH!" Jack hissed.

"Now, that's not very nice, is it? Not when I'm just trying to fill in the blanks for you," the Master scolded in an amused tone. Then his voice hardened. "And, believe me, Freak, you're never going to find out in any other way what it's like to be with Tejana, because she belongs to me now."

"I will kill you," the Captain promised, his face twisted in hatred. "One day, this will all be over and the tables will turn and I swear to God, I _will_ kill you."

The Master stood and walked over to sit down in the chair the guards had placed earlier for him. "No, you won't. Because, this time round, the tables aren't going to turn. And even if they did, even if you got the perfect chance, you still wouldn't do it – trust me, I know."

"You're wrong! I'd do it in a heart-beat, you bastard!"

"Whatever!" the Master replied in a bored voice. "And here's me thinking we could have some quality male bonding time by having a nice little chat about our sex lives. You disappoint me, Jack. Still, perhaps it's time we got on with the main event of the evening."

"What main event?" Jack asked warily.

"Didn't I mention it? We've got some guest judges for tonight's performance," the Master told him. "Bring them in."

Obediently, the guards marched four people into the room, forcing them to kneel in a line opposite Jack. Their heads were covered in rough hessian sacks, effectively concealing their identities, and their hands were bound. Jack stared at them, a terrible fear dawning in his blue eyes.

The Master moved to stand behind the new arrivals. "All the way from the Himalayas, allow me to present...Miss Gwen Cooper...Doctor Owen Harper...Miss Toshiko Sato...and, of course, the inimitable Ianto Jones. As a group, I believe they are collectively known as...Torchwood."

One by one, as he called their names, he pulled the coverings away, revealing the angry, confused faces of Jack's team.

"Jack!" Gwen gasped, recognising her erstwhile leader. "What the hell is going on?"

"Let them go!" Jack bit out, his tone ragged with fury. "You've already got me. You've got the Doctor and Tejana. You don't need them!"

"Oh, but I do," the Master said coldly. "I need them to bring me Miss Martha Jones."

"What are you talking about?" Gwen demanded, her chin raised haughtily. "Why are we here? What exactly do you want from us?"

"I'm sure you've all heard of Martha Jones. The child that walks the Earth, spreading her little fairy-tales about the Doctor, giving your human compatriots _hope_?" the Master said sarcastically, returning to his chair. "To date, I haven't been able to catch up with her because the Resistance have been very clever in hiding her. But that's all about to change. Because who would Martha Jones and her Resistance cohorts trust more than Torchwood, her precious Jack's beloved team? You, Miss Cooper, and your friends, are going to deliver her up to me."

"The hell we are!" retorted Owen Harper pugnaciously. "You can go and stuff yourself. We're not helping you."

"We're Torchwood – we're not afraid of dying," Ianto added. "So go ahead and do your worst."

"Ianto, Ianto, Ianto..." the Master replied in a gentle, remonstrating voice. "Who said anything about _you_ dying? No, your choice is much more simple than that. Either you give me Martha Jones, or you get to watch your leader die in a different agonising way every day, over and over again."

"Don't listen to him!" Jack spoke up sharply. "Martha's too important. Just the fact that he wants her so badly proves it. She could be the last hope of the human race."

The Master laughed. "Now that I've stopped the Doctor from infiltrating the Archangel Network, Martha Jones is nothing but a loose end. Hardly the last hope of the human race and certainly not worth being a martyr for. Still, it's your choice. The safety of a woman you don't know and don't care about, versus the health and well-being of your heroic leader. Hmmmm, decisions, decisions - just what _should_ you do?" Then he snapped his fingers. "I know! Let's have a demonstration, shall we? I'm sure that will help you make up your minds."

Behind him, with a sharp, metallic ringing sound, the lethal blades sprang free from the hovering Toclafane. "Kill him as painfully as possible," the Master ordered the sphere coldly, rising to his feet. "I'll be back in half an hour, ladies and gentlemen. I suggest you think carefully on your decision in that time."

Jack had already begun to scream as he closed the door behind him and began to walk up the corridor. If anyone had asked, the Master knew he would not have been able to explain why he had left the room. In the old days, during The Year That Never Was, he had repeatedly both watched and participated in Jack's murder, the drums clamouring gleefully in his head, demanding satisfaction. Now, however, the prospect of torturing the handsome Captain seemed to have inexplicably lost its appeal.

_I'm bored, that's all, _he told himself. _The novelty has worn off, that's why it isn't fun any more. It's not as though I'm getting soft. And it's certainly not because I think I owe him anything for saving __my life in the catacombs of Avalon. That freak deserves all he gets._

Nonetheless, as he briskly walked away, he found that instead of relishing Jack's howls of agony, he was subconsciously trying to shut the sound out of his head.

* * *

**- The Doctor's Cell, _The Valiant_, 2008 -**

Slowly, painfully, the Doctor levered his ancient body to a sitting position. He was listening intently, his chest tight with anguish. Jack was screaming, a terrible, primal noise that vibrated horrifyingly through the air. He knew now that it was not - and never had been - his imagination. Now that he was no longer concentrating his mind on the Archangel Network, he was more aware of the events happening around him and he realised that tonight, just like all the other nights, Jack's torment was real.

Unexpectedly, his cell door swung open and the Master walked casually into the room. "Good evening, Gramps. I was just passing and thought I'd pop in for a visit."

The Doctor looked at him bitterly. "What...are...you doing...to Jack?" he wheezed, his breath catching in his aged throat as he forced the words out.

"Just a bit of friendly persuasion," the Master shrugged. "All designed to help me catch up with the errant Miss Jones."

"He...won't help you...it doesn't matter...what you do," the Doctor said hoarsely. "You're wasting...your time."

"You know, you're so right. And, in fact, that might really worry me..." the Master said sarcastically. "If it was him I was trying to persuade."

"What does that mean?"

"Never you mind, Gandalf. You should be more worried about yourself than Captain Freak. You don't sound too good. Maybe you should see a doctor!" the Master taunted. "Mind you, it can't be much fun knowing you've just lost your one big chance to save the Earth. So, come on, Doctor, tell me – aren't you the littlest bit curious as to how I figured out your clever plan? Just a teeny-weeny bit?"

The Doctor stared at his enemy intently as he talked. There was definitely something different about him. It was there, nagging at the edge of the Doctor's mind, crying out for him to notice it. What was it? _What was it?_

Then he realised. The Master wasn't tapping any more. Up until the day before yesterday, whenever the other Time Lord's hands had come into contact with a solid surface, his fingers had constantly tapped out a four-beat tattoo, compulsively echoing the incessant drumming in his head. But now, his hands were still, the fingers relaxed. The Doctor's gaze shot to the eyes of his arch-enemy, seeking the wild flame of insanity that had danced there so recently. The Master's eyes were as mocking as ever, but they were clear and completely lucid. The Doctor drew in his breath sharply. It was like looking at a different man.

Suddenly, Tejana's coded message flickered across his brain: _Not your me ten._

In a blinding flash, it all became clear to him. He had been an idiot, he had misunderstood! She hadn't meant to say "me", she had meant to say her own name. And when she said "ten", she didn't mean the number, she meant _him_, the tenth Doctor.

_Not your Tejana, Ten._

In other words, she was not the Tejana from his time-line. By calling him "Ten", she had been telling him that she was from some time in the future, after he had regenerated again. No wonder she had seemed out of place when he had first laid eyes on her this morning. And she hadn't been the only one...

"You're not from this time-line," he rasped. "That's how you knew...about what we were planning...because it worked, didn't it? We managed to stop you. But you're from the future. Somehow...you've managed to come back in time, to change everything."

The Master grinned and began to clap his hands very slowly. "Oh, very good, Doctor. Looks like that decrepit old brain of yours is functioning, after all. Reciprocal Temporal Displacement, to be precise. The Master from your time-line is currently in 2013. And lucky old you, you've got ME!"

"The drums...in your head...they're gone, aren't they?" the Doctor asked, watching him keenly. "What happened to you?"

To his surprise, a look of bitter pain and anger flashed over the Master's face. "Now _that _would make very long and interesting bed-time story. The drums were real, Doctor. Didn't know that, did you? All those years you thought I was insane and all along it was a signal, deliberately sent back through time to infect my brain when I was a child."

"I don't...understand."

"No, you never did, did you? Not even when we were kids, back on Gallifrey, back when I needed your help."

"You wouldn't _let_ me help you!"

"You _left_! Just pissed off in your stolen crap-heap of a TARDIS and to hell with me!"

"I'm sorry...really, Master, I'm so sorry..." the Doctor said fervently. "If you just tell me what happened, I can help you now. Together, we can stop all this."

"Too late!" the Master snarled. "I don't need your help. And I have no intention of stopping. I'm going to get back everything that should have been mine. This is the way it's going to be, so you'd better learn to live with it."

With that, he turned on his heel and walked towards the door.

"And Tejana?" the Doctor demanded, shooting the words out like bullets from a gun.

The Master stiffened and looked back over his shoulder. "What about her?"

"Why...did you bring her...back with you? If it was...just for leverage...against me, you could have...used the Tejana from this time-line. Why go...to all the trouble of...displacing her too? Why...the psi-bracelet? Why...the Toclafane guard?"

"Doctor, if I told you the truth about Tejana, you would never believe me," the Master replied with a small, secret smile. "So good luck trying to figure it all out!"

Then he was gone and the Doctor was left alone, his mind spinning. Exhausted from the effort of so much talking, he lay back on his bunk, trying to put all the pieces together in his mind. One thing was very clear – Tejana was the key. Somehow, in the future, she had become the Master's weakness, his Achilles Heel. The only question was..._how_?

* * *

**- Interrogation Room, _The Valiant_, 2008 -**

The Master was going to get his way. He sensed it as soon as he re-entered the interrogation room and saw the faces of the Torchwood team.

Owen Harper was trying desperately to keep an impassive face, but his eyes burned with a deep, revolted horror. Toshiko Sato had vomited on the floor and was whispering gibberish nonsense to herself, her eyes squeezed tightly shut. Ianto Jones seemed to be almost comatose, his expression set and unresponsive, as if he had retreated within his mind to shut out the nightmarish scene he had been forced to witness. Gwen Cooper's face was bone-white, her freckles standing out in stark relief against her chalky complexion. Her cheeks were streaked with tears.

"All right, you win, you bastard," she said in a low, sickened voice. "We'll do it."

The Master nodded curtly, keeping his gaze averted from the bloody mess in the corner of the room that had so recently been Jack Harkness. "I thought you might see it my way."

* * *

**- Corridor outside the Kitchens, _The Valiant_, 2008 -**

Tiredly, Wes picked his way carefully along the dimly lit corridor, his shoulders slumped in bone-weary exhaustion. It was the middle of the night, the soft, gentle darkness enfolding him like a blanket, urging him to sleep. He needed to get back to his tiny poke-hole of a cabin as soon as possible, to try to get his head down for a few hours before he was required to be back on duty in the kitchens. The chefs had gone to bed hours ago, of course. But Wes was not a chef, he was only a gangling seventeen-year-old kitchen hand. Someone had to make sure the kitchens were immaculate before the commencement of the following day. As the lowest in the pecking order, that duty fell to Wes more often than not.

He didn't mind, not really. After all, being a chef on _The Valiant _was no bed of roses either. The Master was extremely particular about his food. A couple of months ago, one of the chefs had over-cooked his steak. The Master hadn't complained. Instead, he had ordered the offending chef to be thrown overboard. Wes still shuddered when he thought about it. It was a very, very long way to fall, from _The Valiant _back to the Earth, and the man had screamed all the way down. Nonetheless, the lesson had been a salutary one – the Master's food had been perfect ever since. Unfortunately for Wes, the hours he was required to work in the kitchen had increased in direct proportion to the extra effort suddenly being put in by the team of chefs.

All at once, up ahead, he saw movement in the gloomy corridor. Wes stared, trying to make out the indistinct figure. It was unusual to see any one down here at this time of night.

"Hello? Who's there?" he said impatiently, too tired to curb his sharp tone.

The figure did not answer, but kept coming towards him. As it got nearer, it passed under one of the corridor lights and Wes stiffened in surprise and recognition.

"Forgive me," he apologised quickly, desperately hoping his offence would be overlooked. "How may I serve you?"

Again, he received no reply. Instead, before he even knew what was happening, a pair of powerful hands snaked out and seized his head in a vice-like grip. For an endless moment, Wes stood transfixed, suspended in a haze of pure agony, as his madly-pulsating brain seemed to be ripped violently from his head. Then, mercifully, death took him into an eternity of silence and he knew no more.

The creature dropped the drained and empty corpse to the ground like a piece of worthless garbage. Throwing its head back, it gave a savage snarl of pleasure, rejoicing in the dark, sweet energy surging through the veins of its stolen body.

One word echoed up the deserted corridor, resonating in a guttural voice that was deep and ancient and completely inhuman.

"_MORE!"_

_

* * *

_

**- Tejana's Suite, _The Valiant_, 2008 -**

Tejana was dreaming. It was not a good dream.

_She was sitting cross-legged on a round wooden platform in the middle of a circular lake. The lake was ringed with a dark, impenetrable forest of closely packed trees. A thin jetty made of rough, wooden planks stretched from the platform to the shore, supported by slimy, rotten-looking pylons. It was night, the pale, disc-like moon painting everything with cold, white light, the stars twinkling far above, as sharp and as hard as diamonds. The air was frosty and completely still, with eddies of wraith-like mist drifting eerily across the smooth, unbroken surface of the murky water. _

_She shivered, the frigid air cutting right through the thin shirt she wore, raising goose-bumps across her skin. She had no idea where she was. This wasn't Gallifrey. Nor was it anywhere on Earth that she recognised. A jagged spike of fear twisted inside her, making it difficult to breathe. She could feel eyes crawling across her skin. Some inner sense warned her that she needed to stay very still and very quiet. She was being watched._

_Trying not to make any sudden movements, she rose carefully to her knees and began to scan the shoreline, but she could see nothing, just the long, dark shadows of the trees in the moonlight, stretching like black fingers into the opaque water._

_A foul odour drifted across to her, permeating the still air with a strange, nauseating mixture of ozone and old blood. Tejana tensed, her hearts beating violently, her body completely motionless as she listened intently. Without warning, a splash erupted in the water behind her, as if something large had surfaced from the depths of the lake. She spun around, a sob of terror catching in her throat. A myriad of tiny ripples boiled across the dark water, leaving no evidence of what had caused them. Nevertheless, she knew there was something there, something evil, something obscene. Whatever it was, it was hunting. And she was the prey._

_And then she heard it. Heavy, slow footsteps on the wooden jetty, each one ponderous and deliberate, as if the hunter wanted her to know it was coming for her, wanted her to drown in her own suffocating fear. She stared down the moon-lit pier, her eyes wide with terror, frantically trying to discern the oncoming threat. But there was nothing there except the drifting mist. _

_Creak, thump, creak, thump...closer and closer...creak, thump, creak, thump._

_She hunkered down on the platform, instinctively making herself as small as possible, her eyes screwed shut, her arms over her head in a futile attempt to protect herself._

_Creak, thump, creak, thump...the invisible thing was so close now, its rancid stench enveloping her, the round platform trembling under its weight..._

_Creak, thump, creak, thump...it was standing over her, hungrily reaching for her..._

"_No..." she screamed. "NO, NO, NOOOOO!"_

"Ana? Ana, what's the matter? ANA?"

Gasping for breath, her body convulsing in terrified shudders, she fought her way clear of the dream. She wasn't on that platform, in the middle of that lake, surrounded by that forest...she was on _The Valiant_, lying on a bed with black satin sheets, bathed in the pink and silver light of the rising dawn. The Master was holding her, his arms wrapped around her, his anxious voice pulling her back from the hellish world of the dream, anchoring her safely back in reality.

"Ana? Are you all right?"

_It was a nightmare_, she told herself shakily, _just a nightmare, that's all_. _Nothing special, nothing to worry about_.

But somehow she knew that wasn't true. Something was very wrong. She hadn't had a single nightmare since she had been with the Master. His presence usually shielded her from the night terrors that had once tormented her, allowing her to sleep in peace. Whatever this had been, it was no normal nightmare – it had been something even the Master couldn't protect her from. And that knowledge frightened her more than anything else.

"Just hold me, Koschei," she whispered. "Hold me and don't let go."


	8. Chapter 8

_**Author's Note: Hi everyone. Thanks very much to MayFairy, Omniac, OhTex, GallifreanGirl, babybluepineapple, Aietradaea and BeautifulRogue for your reviews, I so love reading them all. I seem to have lost a few of my "older" reviewers from my previous fics (perhaps I have bored them all to death over the course of four fics, LOL), so I really do appreciate those who have stayed with me and also the lovely new reviewers who have been so kind. **_

* * *

**CHAPTER EIGHT**

**- Tejana's Suite, _The Valiant_, December 2008 -**

The Master gazed at the mirror in front of him as he neatly knotted his tie. He wasn't looking at his own image. Instead, his eyes concentrated on the corner of the glass which reflected the sitting area behind him. Tejana was curled up on one of the lounges, dressed in the soft, white robe, her long black hair falling in a silken curtain down her back. She was staring unseeingly out the huge windows, her breakfast tray untouched on the table before her.

It had been three weeks since the temporal displacement and the Master was beginning to worry about her. He had expected her to be angry, but this...this was something else. She was hardly eating and was growing thinner every day, the dark circles under her eyes growing more and more pronounced. She refused to sleep, forcing herself to remain awake until the exhaustion was so intense that she couldn't hold off any longer and then she would wake up screaming. She would never tell him what she had been dreaming about and, with the psi-bracelet in place, he was unable to use the psychic link to dream-share with her. Not that she would probably let him help her anyway – the distance between them seemed to be increasing all the time. She was still physically responsive to him, unable to resist the white-hot need that always flared between them, but she had mentally withdrawn herself from him completely. It was sending the Master mad with frustration. He wanted her back, all of her. It was strange to find himself longing for something he had already had before the start of his great plan, something he now seemed to have inexplicably lost.

"Eat your breakfast, Ana," he ordered, turning to look directly at her.

"I'm not hungry," she answered in a listless, uninterested voice.

"I said eat it," he repeated coldly.

For a moment, her gaze met his and he thought he saw a spark of temper flaring deep within the blue eyes.

_Come on, Ana, _he thought intently. _Tell me to go to hell. That at least would be something!_

But then her eyes slid away again, her expression blank. She gave a slight shrug and obediently reached for a piece of toast. Without acknowledging him again, she chewed and swallowed, her attention once more fixed on the window, as if he wasn't even there.

The Master scowled. When he had implemented his plan, he hadn't foreseen this particular problem and he was unsure how to deal with it. Women! Why did they always have to be so bloody difficult? He couldn't allow her go to on like this. He had to find a way to reach her and soon, otherwise she was going to make herself ill. He knew she hated being confined in this room, luxurious though it was. Perhaps that was the answer – perhaps she needed some time away from this room, maybe even some time away from _The Valiant _itself.

He walked over to her and dropped a kiss on her cheek, which she ignored. Then he walked out the door, already reaching into his pocket for his mobile to see what he could organise.

* * *

**- Excerpt from the Diary of Lucy Saxon, _The Valiant, _December 2008 - **

_My head feels like it's burning. All my thoughts are tangled up, twisted together in one big ruined mess. Just like my life is one big, ruined mess. I can't think straight any more and nothing seems to make sense. Harry has left me. I don't know why I didn't see it coming. Things have been bad for so long, but somehow I thought it would get better. I honestly thought, once the rockets were launched and his plans were complete, he would stop being the Master and go back to being Harry again. But that's not going to happen, is it?_

_It's her, of course. Tejana, the Doctor's daughter. Everyone knew about it, about them, long before I did. I have no doubt it's been gossiped about all over the ship. Everything Harry does is watched and talked about and reported to the Resistance. Nobody would think to tell me though. Why should they? They all hate me._

_Several days ago, Francine Jones came to the suite for his clothes. She just walked in without a word and began clearing out his cupboard. When I demanded to know what the hell she was doing, she just looked at me with those marble-hard eyes and said, "Master's orders."_

_So I made her tell me, where he spends his nights, about the other state suite and who was living there. Funny, isn't it, and yet so sad, so indicative of my pathetic life – the only one I could turn to, the only one I could trust to tell me the truth, was Francine Jones, the woman who despises me beyond all measure. She may as well have punched me in the stomach, the effect was just the same. After loathing me silently for so long, she finally managed to rip my world apart with just a few cold words from her callous, thin-lipped mouth._

_Tejana. A Time Lady, just as he is a Time Lord. Proud, beautiful, last female of his kind. His perfect match in every way, the yin to his yang. How could I ever hope to compete with that? Where would a stupid human like me even begin?_

_Francine just watched in contempt as my legs went out from under me and I collapsed on to the bed, bleeding from the inside out._

"_But she hates him!" I said, clutching at straws now, hoping against hope that there was some mistake. "Everybody knows that she hates him, she makes no secret of it!"_

"_What does that matter?" Francine hissed. "Do you think she has a choice? He has her father and her friends at his mercy. She's a slave, just like the rest of us!"_

_And that's when it all became clear to me. It's as though I had been living in some sort of fog. Francine was right. Harry is a monster. He will always take what he wants, no matter what it is. He will continue to take and take and take until there is nothing left. And I have helped him do it._

_But I love him. God help me, I still love him. "I'm sorry," I whispered, hardly even knowing what I was saying._

"_What do you want from me, Mrs Saxon?" she snarled. "Forgiveness? Absolution? Well, you're not going to get it. You stood by his side while he planned to take over your planet, you danced to his music while he destroyed your people, you live here in luxury while millions die every day. You don't deserve my forgiveness. Is it my sympathy you want? Compassion, because you've suddenly discovered that you're married to the Devil himself? Well, I have two daughters – one of them a slave aboard this ship, the other being hunted like an animal across the Earth. So you will never have pity from me, because unlike the rest of us, you made your choice, now you have to live with it."_

_I watched her leave, taking Harry's things with her. I could hear her harsh voice ringing in my ears, her words so similar to the ones I once said proudly to that poor journalist, Vivian Rook, just before Harry killed her._

_I made my choice, Mrs Rook...for better or for worse..._

_A shiver took me from head to toe at the memory. Perhaps that sums me up. Perhaps that is all that I am. Perhaps that will be my eulogy, my epitaph._

_Lucy Saxon, the woman who made her choice._

* * *

**- Lower Levels of The Valiant, December 2008 - **

Karl was day-dreaming again. He was supposed to be guarding the storage room on the very bottom level of _The Valiant_, but it wasn't exactly the most challenging of tasks. Nobody ever came down here. Nobody would _want_ to come down here, into this dank, dark hole. After all, it wasn't as though he was guarding anything valuable. The only thing in the storage room was an old blue police call box, the sort they used to have in the 1960s for contacting the local police station in an emergency. Karl couldn't imagine why an alien from an advanced species like the Master would have any interest in such a shoddy old antique, still less why he would value it enough to put an around-the-clock guard on it.

However, orders were orders. So, to prevent himself from being bored to death, Karl let his mind wander. He usually passed the time by imagining what it was like to be the Master. He knew that as a loyal member of the human race, he should hate his alien overlord. But secretly, Karl admired him. The Master had the whole world under his control. He was able to do anything he wanted, have anything or anyone he wanted. All the Master had to do was to give an order and everyone had to obey, or suffer the consequences. Karl drew in a ragged breath as he thought about having all that power. Oh, the things he would do in that position! Nobody would _dare_ to disrespect him then.

Karl had never had much luck with women. He had an unattractive, pock-marked face and his arms were too long for his stocky body, giving him a shambling walk reminiscent of an orangutang. Most women tended to run a mile before he even got to speak to them. Those who didn't were soon repulsed by his coarse, leering manner and his smutty, innuendo-laden conversation. Back in the old days, before everything changed, he had relied on phone sex and porn videos as substitutes for female company. Now he had to make do with his imagination. Just thinking about the Master's women made his heart beat faster. That beautiful, blonde, sexy wife of his, oh yeah, baby! And that hot little piece Tania, who would never even give Karl the time of day – if he was in the Master's place, he would soon show her who was boss. And then the most recent conquest, according to gossip, the luscious alien woman with her slender, curvy body and the long, black hair. Oh, to be the Master, just for a day!

So deeply immersed was he in his erotic imaginings, Karl completely failed to hear the soft step behind him. A hand landed heavily on his shoulder and spun him around. His piggy little eyes went wide with shock and then he was screaming and screaming and screaming...

* * *

**- Corridors leading to Tejana's Suite, _The Valiant_, December 2008 -**

Damon strode smartly down the steel-lined corridor, surreptitiously stifling a yawn as he went. He wasn't sure why he was so tired. He seemed to sleep all right, falling into unconsciousness as soon as his head hit the pillow and slumbering dreamlessly until it was time to wake up. But his head still felt like it was stuffed full of cotton wool, fuzzy and soft and unreliable.

He couldn't afford to outwardly show any weakness, now that he was one of the Elite, one of the Master's hand-picked team of bodyguards. Since his recent promotion, he had soon realised that some of the Master's power seemed to rub off on his guards. It was a strange phenomenon, one Damon couldn't explain. All at once, since he started wearing the black uniform with the red arm-band, people were treating him differently, with an almost obsequious deference, as though they were afraid of him. He imagined it was the same way people had treated the Gestapo back during World War Two. He wasn't particularly comfortable with that comparison.

Some of the others - like Joe, the Master's own personal guard - made full use of their position, throwing their weight around, demanding the best of everything. Joe revelled in lording it over his fellow humans, ruthlessly punishing anyone who dared to offend him. For him, and those like him, the Master's reign was the best thing that had ever happened. But not for Damon. Although he lived in comfort in this palace in the sky, he knew that millions of his brethren down below were dying from starvation, disease and over-work. Every day, Damon remembered the truth of what had happened to the Earth. Despite his own promotion and increase in prestige, he would never forget it.

Even so, his life had definitely become more complicated since he had been assigned to protect Tejana. Every time he thought of her, a strange feeling stirred inside him. The more he was around her, the more she disturbed him. Over and over, he tried to analyse what it was, but with no success. It wasn't that he fancied her. Even he wasn't stupid enough to fancy the Master's woman, no matter how beautiful she was. And it wasn't because she was an alien, although that was certainly a bit unsettling. It was something else, something that gnawed at the edges of his mind whenever he was with her, almost as if he could hear far off voices whispering, but couldn't quite make out what they were saying. He had never felt anything like it before and it both frightened and fascinated him. Every now and then, the voices seemed to come closer, become clearer, and he would think that finally he was going to understand, only to feel them slip away into confusion once again.

More and more, he found himself wondering about Tejana's relationship with the Master. If rumour was correct, the evil overlord was forcing her to be with him, by threatening the life of her father. Every tale Damon heard grew increasingly more melodramatic, riddled with ever more lurid detail. In this new, harsh regime, full of endless hard work and deprivation, gossip and story-telling had become one of the few forms of entertainment left to the human slaves. Damon didn't believe any of it. He didn't know much about women, but he did know that whatever it was in Tejana's gaze when she looked at the Master, it wasn't hate.

And today...today the Master was taking her down to walk upon the Earth. Damon had no idea what that might mean. He hadn't dared to ask. Instead, he had followed orders and organised a military helicopter, ready to transport them down to the Earth.

Now, all that remained was to get Tejana on board.

* * *

**- Aletsch Forest, Switzerland, December 2008 - **

"Ohhhhh!" Tejana gasped. "It's beautiful."

And it was. The forest was like something out of a fairy tale, the ground blanketed in a smooth carpet of snow, the sun glinting on the ice crystals hanging from the branches of the trees. The air smelt sharp and fresh and _real_, unlike the flat, dry stuff that circulated through the ventilation systems of the _The Valiant_. Tejana took a deep, luxurious breath, feeling the gentle serenity of her surroundings wash over her.

_Oh gods, it reminded her so much of Gallifrey, so long ago, so very long ago..._

She hadn't believed it when Damon had arrived at her suite telling her to dress warmly, because the Master was taking her down to the Earth for a picnic. At first she had thought that the young guard was playing some kind of weird prank on her. Then, when she realised he was serious, she had become angry.

_So the prisoner was to be given exercise, was she? Taken for a walk like a puppy dog? After all, her health was SO important. She was the only Time Lady left - it wouldn't do for the Master's one and only brood mare to get sick, now would it?_

For one wild second, she had toyed with the idea of refusing to go. But then she had seen the anxious look in Damon's eyes and knew that he would be the only person to suffer for her stubbornness. Swallowing back her rage, she got dressed and put on a warm jacket, woollen hat and gloves, just as she had been instructed. Deep down inside, in spite of everything that had happened, a little flicker of hope still danced. She remembered lying in the Master's arms on the Eye of Orion, looking up at the stars, overwhelmed by an incredible happiness and a sense of freedom she had never known before. Surely that couldn't all just disappear into thin air. She missed him so much, it was like a knife twisting between her hearts. The chasm separating them seemed so wide, so unbridgeable. She had never realised that you could still miss someone even when they were standing right in front of you. Perhaps, somehow today, away from the cage of _The Valiant_, out from under the looming shadow of his plans for universal domination, they could find a way to put things right between them.

So she had gone with Damon and Peter to the helicopter, parked on the windy runway of the mighty aircraft carrier. But, much to her dismay, after all that soul-searching, the Master hadn't even been there. He had been unavoidably detained, according to the pilot, and would be joining her later. Tejana had raised her chin, determined not to show how disappointed she was, unwilling to admit it even to herself.

And that was how she had come to be standing at Damon's side, looking out over the beautiful Swiss forest, unexpectedly lost in the memories of her long-gone childhood and her vanished home.

"It's just like the Forest of Glass in the winter, don't you think, Damon?" she exclaimed impulsively, turning to face her companion, only to pull up short, suddenly remembering that, although they shared the same name, this was not the friend of her youth.

The young guard looked faintly embarrassed, his eyes compassionate as he saw the flash of pain cross her face.

"You were thinking of him, weren't you?" he asked gently. "The other Damon?"

"I'm sorry," she said stiffly. "It's silly. It's just that you look a bit like him, as well as having the same name. Must be old age catching up with me."

Damon stared at her lovely, youthful features and laughed, thinking she was joking. "I don't think you have to worry about old age just yet."

"You'd be surprised," Tejana said, her tone threaded with bitterness. "I'm older than I look."

He hesitated for a moment, but then curiosity got the better of him. "The Forest of Glass...is that on another planet? It's just...well, they say you're aliens, you and the Doctor, from the same world as the Master. Is...is it true?"

Tejana nodded, not seeing any point in denying it. "It's true. We're Time Lords from the planet Gallifrey. Or we were...Gallifrey is gone now – destroyed. We're the last three of our people left in existence."

"You look human," Damon said, studying her closely as though he expected her to suddenly sprout an extra head or something.

"My father would answer that by saying you look Time Lord. Our species was around a long time before yours!" Tejana retorted icily.

Damon grinned apologetically. "Sorry, didn't mean to be rude. I've just never met a real alien before."

"That's OK," she responded with a sigh. "Considering what the Master's putting your planet through right now, you're entitled to be rude."

"So...what happened to your planet?"

"A war. A great war, beyond anything a human could ever imagine. And now there's nothing left."

"Did the Master start that one too?" Damon asked.

Tejana couldn't helping laughing, before realising that he was completely serious. "No," she replied wryly. "He's done a lot of things in his time, but that one he wasn't responsible for."

"What's it like, being out in space?"

She thought longingly of the freedom of travelling in a TARDIS, the breathless sense of excitement, the thrill of never knowing where you were going to end up next. Right now, she would give anything to be on a strange planet somewhere with her father, being chased by a horde of weird-looking creatures, fleeing for their lives. Imprisoned as she was in a time-line not her own, even the Doctor's never-ending running appeared nostalgically attractive.

"It's...amazing, fantastic, huge, frightening, more terrible and more incredible than you could ever imagine...there's so much to see, so many different beings, so many awesome places, you have no idea!"

"And your planet? What was it like?"

"It was beautiful, just like this," she answered wistfully. "When I was about twelve, my class went on a field trip to the Forest of Glass in the middle of winter. My father wasn't around when I was very young and I was a made a Ward of the High Council, so I didn't get to leave the Citadel very often. The Forest of Glass was the most magical thing I'd ever seen. All that snow, so white, so perfect. The trees were formed from pure crystal and when the light from the double sun shone through them, it made rainbows on the snow. And when the wind blew through the leaves, there was this chiming noise, like a million tiny bells ringing. Oh, Damon, it was incredible – and for that one day, we were just kids having fun, no duties, no restrictions, no responsibilities. I remember we had a snow-ball fight – to this day, it's still one of the most fun things I've ever done."

Seeing the sadness shadowing her face, Damon's gaze softened in sympathy. But then a twinkle of mischievous impulse entered his eyes. "Just so happens, I'm a world-renowned expert on snow-ball fights."

"Is that right?" she returned absently, her mind still wandering the paths of long ago, back on Gallifrey.

"Yep," he smiled, bending over and scooping up a handful of snow, his hands sculpting the powdery crystals into a compact ball.

Suddenly discerning his intention, Tejana began backing away, her hands up defensively. "Oh, no, you don't!"

His handsome face alight with amusement, he began to wind up, as though he was preparing to bowl a cricket ball.

"Damon...don't you dare!" she said warningly, right before receiving a faceful of snow.

She could hear him laughing as she brushed away the icy flakes liberally sprinkling her long, dark hair. "Right!" she muttered. "This means war!"

Damon was too busy chuckling to realise what was happening until he too received a generous helping of snow in his face. That was the signal for an all-out battle, as both combatants took cover behind the nearest trees. A flurry of snow-balls exchanged sides, accompanied by a volley of mixed insults and laughter. Tejana gave as good as she got, so the world-renowned expert didn't get it all his own way. The battle waxed fast and furious, with Damon temporarily driven back by a well-aimed barrage from behind Tejana's tree, only to recover and retaliate rapidly. Tejana was about to let fly with another missile, when she heard Peter's warning voice from up on the small ridge behind them. "Damon!"

Looking up, they both saw that the Master had arrived and was standing nearby, watching them. He was dressed in his red-lined black overcoat, with black leather gloves on his hands, an imposing and sinister figure against the pristine background of the snow-covered hill. Immediately, Damon stood to attention, determinedly ignoring the fact that his uniform was covered in melting ice crystals. Seeing the forbidding expression on the Master's face, Tejana dropped the snow-ball she was holding, her insides clenching in sudden fear, not for herself, but for Damon.


	9. Chapter 9

**_Author's Note: OK, wow, I have a few people to thank this time around! GallifreanGirl, iLuvTwiboyz, MayFairy, OhTex, Omniac, babybluepineapple, Aietradaea and Beautiful Rogue - thank you so much for your reviews, as always I was thrilled to read your opinions._**

**_Also, thanks to Aietradaea and babybluepineapple for your PMs, lovely to chat with you!  
_**

**_To jayny - Thank you so much for taking the time to read all my stories in one go. I'm so pleased that you liked them, especially as you are not usually a fan of OC pairings - that really puts a smile on my face. So welcome on board and I hope you continue to let me know what you think!_**

**_To jiwa - Hi again, welcome back! Thank you very much for your reviews on "The Portal of Eternity" and "So Many Things Should Have Been Different", as well as this new fic. Look forward to hearing from you again soon!_**

**_And last, but definitely, definitely not least, a huge wave to tardisandafirebolt, who has very kindly been systematically reviewing every single chapter of my fics from the very beginning - wow, what can I say, except that you are a full-on legend and I totally appreciate the effort you are putting in. Thank you!  
_**

**_OK, I think that is everyone, hope I haven't missed anyone. I struggled a bit with this chapter, trying to get it to come out the way I wanted, so I hope it is all right...  
_**

* * *

**CHAPTER NINE**

**- Aletsch Forest, Switzerland, December 2008 - **

The Master had not intended to be late. Unfortunately, his Chief of Security had insisted on an urgent meeting with him at the last minute, some boring nonsense about people dropping dead all over the ship. Apparently, seven humans had been found dead in the last three weeks and no-one could determine the reason, since the bodies seemed to be completely undamaged in any way. Quite honestly, the Master couldn't care less. What did it matter if a few more humans died? He had a whole planet full of the stunted little apes, so they could easily be replaced. It didn't worry him how the work got done, as long as it did. He made it abundantly clear to the terrified Chief of Security that he was extremely displeased at being bothered with such a trivial matter. He also informed the man that if he wanted to remain in his position as Chief of Security – as opposed to, say, taking a running jump off the side of the ship – he should handle all such matters himself from now on. After all, that was why the Master employed him. The man's complexion had turned an interesting shade of grey and he had almost choked on his profuse apologies before bowing his way out of the Time Lord's presence.

All of which would have been very entertaining, if his mind hadn't been occupied with Tejana and his ongoing frustration at the problems between them. Any other time, he would have been tempted to laser the Security Chief just to make himself feel better, but he was in a bit of a rush today. So instead, he hurried to the second military helicopter waiting on the runway and ordered the pilot to take off as soon as possible.

After landing in a snowy clearing, he left the helicopter and walked up the nearby hill, searching for the earlier arrivals. The first thing he heard as he came to the top of the rise was a merry peal of laughter. Stunned, he realised it came from Tejana. He didn't think he had ever heard her laugh like that before. The sound was free and unrestrained and completely unselfconscious. Looking down, he saw her sheltering behind a tree as one of her black-clad guards bombarded her with a round of snow-balls. Giggling like a child, she returned fire, pelting the young man and scoring several hits with admirable accuracy. Frowning, the Master moved closer, his feet soundless on the thick carpet of snow, his eyes fixed on her face. Her usually pale cheeks were flushed with exertion and the cold had made her blue eyes sparkle, her delicate features radiant with laughter.

"Oh, _come on_," she called tauntingly. "Is that all you've got?"

"I'm just getting started!" the young guard replied cheerfully, launching a renewed assault.

_Oh no, you're not! _the Master thought furiously. _You're well and truly finished!_

Just then, Tejana's other guard noticed him standing there and called a warning to his colleague. The young man, who was apparently named Damon, straightened up instantly, standing stiffly to attention. Tejana glanced up and all the life and vitality drained instantly from her expression as she saw him, the snowball she was holding dropping unnoticed to the ground.

Surprisingly, the Master felt an unprecedented stab of hurt deep inside. Usually it delighted him when people quailed before him, his very presence instilling fear into their souls. But he didn't want that from Tejana. He remembered the way her face had brightened whenever he had appeared back on the Eye of Orion, her eyes lighting in a warm, inviting welcome. She had warned him at the beginning of their relationship that she didn't trust him and he had accepted that. However, looking back on it now, he realised that trust had been slowly but steadily growing between them. Bit by bit, she had been gradually giving herself into his keeping. Now though, since the temporal displacement, all of that had been swept away, the fragile emotional connection between them shattered into pieces.

He raised his chin, his eyes as hard as flint, and gestured with his head for Damon to leave. Obediently, both guards backed away until they stood discreetly out of sight.

"I'm sorry I'm late," the Master said to Tejana, his cold tone removing all meaning from his apology. "But it seems you've been...entertained."

"This place reminded me of Gallifrey," she told him, her words jagged with an undercurrent of apprehension. "Damon was just trying to cheer me up. It's not his fault, Koschei. Please, don't..."

"Don't what?" he snarled.

"Don't hurt him."

The Master chose not to answer, glancing around at the beautiful forest scene instead. "What about Gallifrey?" he asked.

"The Forest of Glass," she replied, watching his face uncertainly. "I went there on an Academy field trip once and we had a snow-ball fight."

He drew in a sharp breath. His class had been on that field trip too, centuries before Tejana was even born. It was a tradition, something the Academy had done every year, for as long as anybody could remember. Without warning, an acute sliver of memory sliced through him.

_The cold, cold air, his breath condensing and hanging in little puffs of steam; the eerie, haunting singing of the trees as the breeze wove in and out of the crystal leaves; the rainbow streaks of light shimmering across the pure, white snow; the medley of childish voices ringing out, triumphant with youth and freedom._

_And, lying in the snow in front of him, a boy with a tousled mop of blonde hair, his blue eyes dancing with impish delight._

"_Theta, what the hell are you doing?" he asked, his voice full of affectionate despair. Theta was always doing something crazy. He always had to try everything, his rampant curiosity getting them into trouble more times than Koschei could count._

_Frowning in concentration, the blonde boy swept his arms and legs backwards and forwards in an ungainly rhythm. "Making snow angels, of course."_

"_Snow angels?"_

"_Yeah, snow angels," Theta grinned, leaping to his feet. Sure enough, left behind in the snow was a distinct imprint of a winged figure wearing a gown, just like the stylised image of one of the Weeping Angels they had learned about in class. "Kids do it for fun on Earth, apparently. Go on, Koschei, give it a try, it's easy."_

_He rolled his eyes, fed up with Theta's peculiar obsession with the planet Earth. "I'm not doing that!"_

"_Oh, go on!" Theta urged. "Don't be a chicken!"_

_And of course, in the end Koschei had given in, just like he always did, unable to resist the shining beacon of enthusiasm that was Theta. He had lain next to his friend in the snow, their angel imprints side by side, just as – back then - he had thought Theta and Koschei would always be side by side, best friends forever. _

The Master shook his head slightly, as though trying to dislodge the intrusive memory. It had been centuries since he had thought of the Forest of Glass. All at once, he found himself wondering if the Doctor still loved the snow as much as he once did. With a pang he could not explain even to himself, he pictured that laughing boy as he was now, the Master's prisoner, his body crippled with age, crouching like a dog in the makeshift canvas tent on the flight deck of _The Valiant_.

_So sorry for everything that happened...to you...Koschei. So sorry...it all went so very wrong. Wish it could have been different...for you...for us...my friend._

Angrily, he forced the dangerous memories aside. He was the Master. He had no room for regret, no room for pity.

_Tough, Doctor! It's my turn now, At last, I'm going to have everything that should have been mine from the start!_

"Koschei?"

Glancing up, he saw Tejana eyeing him anxiously, as though she expected him to start decimating the Earth's population all over again at any moment. Suddenly, all he wanted, the_ only_ thing he wanted, was to see her smile at him, the way she had back on the Eye of Orion.

Putting his head on one side, he gave her his most charming, boyish grin. "Ever made a snow angel, Ana?"

Tejana looked confused, clearly taken aback by his lightning fast mood change, not sure how to react. "What's a snow angel?"

He gave her a cheeky wink. Then, totally disregarding his elegant woollen overcoat, he lay back on an undisturbed patch of snow and swished his arms and legs backward and forwards. When he stood up, he had created a trough in the snow which did bear an amazing resemblance to an angel, just as the Doctor had shown him so long ago.

"Snow angel," he told her. "Your turn now."

Motionless, Tejana stared at him, her dark blue eyes wide with absolute astonishment, obviously trying to determine if he had finally gone completely insane. The Master raised one eyebrow challengingly.

"Well? Go on, I dare you."

He saw the corners of her mouth twitch, an incredulous trickle of amusement forcing its way through her instinctive wariness. He knew it went completely against her nature to back down from a dare, even a silly one such as this. Sure enough, without a word, she walked over to another patch of unmarked snow. Not taking her eyes from his face, she allowed herself to fall gracefully backwards into the cold whiteness, her arms and legs duplicating the movements he had demonstrated. Jumping up, she looked down at her handiwork.

"Snow angel," she said defiantly, waving her hand airily at the imprint she had made.

"Not bad for a beginner," he replied, pursing his lips in a critical fashion. "Not as good as mine though."

To his satisfaction, Tejana's glance suddenly held a militant sparkle. "Not as good! Who are you trying to kid? It's way better!"

The Master gave a derisive snort, deliberately baiting her. "You think?"

"Yeah, I think!"

From there, with neither of them willing to admit defeat, they threw all rationality to the wind and spent the next half an hour in a fierce competition to see who could make the most perfect snow angel. It was the single most ridiculous, absurd, nonsensical thing the Master had ever done. And yet, seeing the vivacious animation restored to Tejana's face, feeling the tenuous beginnings of a renewed connection between them, it was also, strangely, one of the most satisfying. He told himself it was just the next move in his calculated campaign to win Tejana over, ignoring the tiny voice in the back of his mind that told him he was enjoying the childish frolic as much as she.

They ended up lying side by side on their backs in the snow, just as he had lain beside her father centuries ago, breathless from exertion and gazing up at the cotton-wool clouds in the azure sky, so different from the flame-coloured heavens of their own world. The Master couldn't help reflecting on the incongruity of Time, that he would end up here on Earth, making snow angels with Theta's daughter.

"Do you miss Gallifrey?" he asked suddenly.

Tejana tensed, hesitating for a moment. Patiently, he waited, knowing she didn't like talking about their home planet, especially since Rassilon had so brutally shown her the truth of the nightmarish holocaust that had enveloped Gallifrey at the end.

"Yes," she finally admitted. "I thought I hated it. Back when I was younger, I thought that there was nothing I would like better than to see the whole planet wiped from the sky. But it's easy to despise something when you know it's always there for you to come back to if you want. When it's gone, when you realise you can never go home...that's a whole other thing."

Then, propping herself up on her elbow, she looked solemnly across at him. "Do you? Miss Gallifrey, I mean?"

"Sometimes," he answered, finding to his surprise that it was true. Usually he was fairly ambivalent about the destruction of Gallifrey, especially since he had discovered how his own people had betrayed and crippled him as a child. Even before that, for most of his life he had considered the High Council a bunch of decrepit, doddering geriatrics, their dusty old rules and regulations tedious and stifling, their policy of non-intervention nothing more than archaic. After all, what was the point of being a Time Lord if you couldn't mess with the Universe from time to time? While he had always felt the pride of his birth-right, the superiority and dominance that came from being a Time Lord, he had never felt the deep love for Gallifrey the Doctor had always evinced. But there were times, like today, when suddenly a bitter-sweet memory would catch at him and pierce him painfully with the knowledge that he would never see his home again.

Tejana lay back in the snow, her eyes thoughtful. Then, after a few seconds, he felt her hand slip into his, lacing their gloved fingers together in a gesture of unconscious intimacy. The Master stroked her palm softly with his thumb, reluctant to move, afraid that if he did, the spell would break and he would lose her again. But the freezing damp was already seeping through the back of his coat and knew he needed to get her somewhere warm. Tightening his grip on her hand, he climbed to his feet, pulling her with him.

"Come on," he said gruffly. "Let's get something to eat."

Peter and Joe, the Master's bodyguard, had already laid out the picnic on a sun-warmed, flat-topped rock at the top of the hill. Damon was nowhere in sight, presumably keeping his head down, hoping to avoid the Time Lord's further notice.

To the Master's surprise, Tejana didn't pull away from him as they sat down to eat. Instead, she sat next to him, nestling into his side as he put his arm around her and drew her close, her head on his shoulder. It was the first time she had voluntarily come to him since the temporal displacement. He wondered if it was just because she was cold, but he couldn't help hoping that it was more than that. Perhaps, finally, she was beginning to come around to his way of thinking. She didn't say much as they began to eat, but he was pleased to see that at least she was consuming some of the delicious food.

They didn't hurry over their meal, content just to hold each other, looking out over the beautiful scenery, insulated from reality in a magical bubble of their own making. Somehow, in this beautiful place, in this enchanted idyll, nothing else mattered except the two of them being together. However, like all fairy-tales, it couldn't last forever. All too soon, the shadows began to lengthen into late afternoon and the time came to return to _The Valiant_.

As Peter began to pack up the remains of their picnic, Tejana stood on the brow of the hill, staring out over the forest, drinking it in thirstily, storing the memory up to sustain her when she was confined once more. The Master moved up behind her and put his hands on her shoulders, gently caressing her, twining his fingers through her long, dark hair. Turning, she looked up at him, her gaze sad and somehow wistful.

"Thank you, Koschei," she said quietly. "For today."

The Master cupped her cheek with his black-gloved hand, his brown eyes deeply searching her face. "I don't want you to be unhappy, Ana."

"Then stop all this. Take us back where we belong."

He shook his head. "I can't do that."

"Can't?" she retorted bitterly. "Or won't?"

With that, she turned and walked away from him, heading back to the flat clearing where the two helicopters were parked. The Master sighed. Nothing had changed. The respite from reality, the brief truce between them, was clearly at an end.

The sun was setting in a blaze of glory as the two helicopters set down side by side on the tarmac of _The Valiant, _the soft, purple clouds of on-coming twilight banked high in the sky, shot through with streaks of vivid yellow and orange. The Master alighted first and then, grasping Tejana around the waist, swung her down beside him, both of them keeping their heads low to avoid the still-spinning rotors.

That was when they saw the other military aircraft, a small troop carrier, standing close by on the runway. Several men dressed in the black uniform of the Master's guard were manhandling a struggling prisoner out of the plane, brutally forcing her to kneel on the ground. Recognising the captive immediately, the Master felt a gnawing feeling of apprehension. _Oh, this wasn't good...this wasn't good at all. _Quickly, he turned to give orders to have Tejana returned to her suite. But it was too late. Tejana had also seen the prisoner. Before he could stop her, she had ducked under his arm and was running across the tarmac.

"Martha!" she cried, falling to her knees beside the other woman and throwing her arms around her. "Oh gods, Martha!"

Martha's face was a mangled mess. She had obviously been repeatedly slapped and beaten, both eyes almost swollen shut, her mouth cut and bleeding, her clothing torn into ribbons.

"Tejana!" she gasped, leaning weakly into her friend's arms.

"What happened?" Tejana demanded urgently. "How did they find you? This isn't how it's supposed to be! It isn't supposed to happen like this!"

"Torchwood!" Martha wheezed, clutching painfully at her side, forcing the words out as if all her ribs were broken. "Torchwood gave me up."

In the background, four more figures were emerging from the back of the troop carrier, escorted by more guards. The Tejana from this time-line would not have known any of them. But in the future, she had worked with each and every one of them, cared about each and every one of them, and – for three of them - she had grieved deeply for them when they died. Owen Harper, Toshiko Sato, Ianto Jones, Gwen Cooper. _Torchwood_.

All four of them looked sick with shame, their eyes cast down, unable even to look at the woman they had deceived so cruelly.

"We're sorry, Martha!" Gwen shouted, as the guards led them away. "Please, forgive us, we had no choice...we're so, so sorry."

"No..." Tejana breathed in horror, staring after them. "No, I don't believe it. They're good people...the best. Why would they _do_ that?"

"Not their fault," Martha bit out. "_He_ tortured Jack, over and over in front of them, until they agreed."

Stunned, Tejana raised her gaze uncomprehendingly to the Master's face. He could see her putting the pieces together in her head, realising that since none of these events had happened before, it was not the Master from the past who was responsible for this, but the Master from her own time-line. _Her Master._

Slowly, moving like an automaton, she climbed to her feet and walked over to stand in front of him, her eyes locked with his in sheer, anguished disbelief. "You tortured Jack? After everything that happened on the Isle of Avalon, _you still tortured Jack_?"

The Master didn't answer – he didn't need to, she read the truth in his eyes. Every bit of colour drained from her face. He saw the hurt and betrayal and disgust flaming deep within her gaze, closely followed by an eruption of white-hot rage. Drawing back her hand, she slapped him as hard as she could.

"_Bastard!_"

A livid, red mark bloomed across his cheek. There was an audible intake of breath from the nearby guards. Everyone seemed to freeze, shocked that anyone would dare to strike their Lord and Master, waiting in horrified silence for the inevitable repercussions.

The Master felt fury searing through his veins. _Harkness. Everything ALWAYS came back to Harkness. _For one brief instant, he was sorely tempted to hit her back, to send her hurtling into the tarmac, proving to her once and for all who was her Master. But then he saw the desolate expression on her face and realised that this was exactly what she expected him to do. Even worse, she _wanted_ him to do it. Right then, right at that moment, more than anything, she wanted to hate him and would welcome any reason he gave her to do it. For the first time since she had agreed to leave with him in his TARDIS, he sensed their relationship hanging in the balance, wavering like a fragile candle-flame in the breeze. One wrong move and it would be gone, extinguished forever.

His gaze moved to Peter, standing like a statue behind her. "You," he said curtly. "Escort Lady Tejana back to her rooms."

Proudly, her head held high, Tejana went with her guard, his back stiff with contempt as she walked away.

The Master looked around at the other humans, still standing and gaping like the idiot apes they were. "What are you all looking at?" he snarled. "Get on with it!"

Hurriedly, all the guards began moving again, hauling Martha roughly to her feet and marching her away. Just then, the Master's angry eyes fell upon Damon, standing well back near the helicopters, and his simmering rage suddenly found a target. Somebody had to pay for this debacle and who better than the handsome young guard who had made Tejana laugh?

"You!" he snapped. "Report to the flight deck right now!"

He would see to it that the boy received a beating he wouldn't soon forget. And, what's more, he would make the Doctor watch.

_Snow angels! _he thought with bitter contempt as he strode across the runway, trying to ignore the hollow ache inside his hearts that just wouldn't go away.


	10. Chapter 10

_**Author's Note: **_

_**Greetings, humans. Thank you very much to the following lovely people for your kind reviews on the previous chapter - MayFairy, GallifreanGirl, iLuvTwiBoyz, Jiwa, OhTex, babybluepineapple, Omniac, Aietradaea and Beautiful Rogue.**_

_**Further thanks to tardisandafirebolt for finishing your reviews to every chapter in this whole series, that was a stunning and most appreciated effort!**_

_**Also, big hi to soro1010, KlinicallyInsaneKoschei, KoscheithePianist and Avelo, if you are still reading ***waves hello *****_

* * *

**CHAPTER TEN**

**- Building Rooftop, Cardiff, March 2013 -**

Captain Jack Harkness stood gazing out over the lights of Cardiff, a tall, motionless shadow, his long coat blowing in the cold, bone-deep wind. Overhead, dark clouds drifted aimlessly across the face of the full moon, temporarily casting Cardiff Bay into darkness, only to move on, releasing the silver moonlight to dance eerily across the choppy waves once more. The air felt heavy with impending rain.

Jack took in a deep breath, tasting the salt of sea-spray on the icy breeze. This was where he had always come when he was troubled, to the high places, close to the stars. Over the long decades of his life, the buildings of Cardiff Bay had come and gone, the newer edifices climbing higher and higher, their rooftops reaching for the sky. But still Jack remained, never changing.

He came here to think, to dream, to remember and to grieve. And always, when he left this place, he was able to go on, to somehow find a new beginning.

First, there had been the endless nights standing high above the city, waiting for the Doctor to return, gazing into the emptiness of eternity, whispering the ancient names of the stars to himself, a constant litany of loneliness and hope.

Then, after The Year That Never Was, when he had returned to lead his team, he had come here again, to remind himself why, in the end, he had chosen Torchwood over the TARDIS. Looking out over Cardiff as the sunlight slowly faded away and the city lights had flickered on - many of them representing a home, a family coming together for a meal at the end of the day, safe in a magical circle of light and love – he had reaffirmed his self-imposed duty. The sentinel of Cardiff, watching over this city, this country, this planet, trying to help the human race become ready to encounter the rest of the Universe.

He had not been alone, back then. Sometimes Ianto had joined him here. His heart clenched now in sorrow as he remembered embracing the young Welshman in this place, far above the bustle and confusion of the world below, exchanging soft kisses, murmured endearments, secret jokes and whispered memories. His Ianto, whom he had loved, but never told.

And then, after the 456 incident, after Ianto was dead, when it was too late, Jack would stand here - the grief flaying him, the pain still so raw, so savage – and he would hear a soft foot-fall behind him and Tejana would step quietly into the curve of his arm. Together they would look out over the water, sharing the night, watching the ghostly yellow flash from the lighthouse ship stationed beyond the mouth of the bay, each of them knowing the other was broken and crying deep inside. Jack had mourned for Ianto and Stephen; for Tosh and Owen; for the Jack he had been long ago, before his own choices had destroyed him. Within her silence, Tejana had ached not only for the atrocities she had witnessed at the Fall of Gallifrey, but also – although Jack hadn't known it then – for the loss of the Master.

Jack had fallen in love with Tejana here. She had been his light in a sea of darkness, leading him home, just as surely as the ships far out in the ocean followed that yellow beacon into the safety of Cardiff Bay. But now her light shone for someone else and Jack was left alone in the blackness, abandoned and confused.

So ironic, then, that the Tejana down below in the Hub, the reason he had retreated tonight to his eyrie in the rooftops, knew nothing of any of it. She looked like his Tejana, sounded like his Tejana, tasted like his Tejana...but she had not yet worked for Torchwood, she had not loved Owen, Tosh, Ianto and Gwen, she did not know about the 456 incident, or remember finding a devastated Jack on the planet Zog. She had not seen the destruction of Gallifrey, she had not walked the catacombs of Avalon. And most of all, she had not yet lain under the stars with the Master in The Matrix.

Looking into her blue eyes, so fresh, unspoiled and clean, so free of the guilt and compassion and sorrow that had marred their relationship in this time-line, Jack could almost believe that none of it had happened. He knew it was only an illusion and that it couldn't last. This wasn't her time. No matter what happened, she couldn't stay. But he couldn't help wondering if this was his only chance to know how it could have been between them, if he had done things differently.

He was the Temporal Nucleus. He held the Universe together simply by existing. The threads of Time danced and soared and twined around him. He was the heart, the centre of everything. The Ood had sung of him: Captain Jack Harkness, the very Lodestone of Time.

Captain Jack Harkness, the most lost and lonely of them all.

Overhead, the dark clouds finally tore asunder, releasing the huge, fat drops of rain to fall to the Earth, gleaming like silver pennies under the capricious light of the moon. Jack threw his arms wide, his back stiff, his head tilted back, welcoming the sharp, icy drops pattering on to the heated skin of his face. Across the rooftop, his crucified, moon-limned shadow stretched for long moments out towards Cardiff, before shrinking and disappearing as he turned and strode away.

It was time to once again find his new beginning.

* * *

**- Roald Dahl Plass, Cardiff, March 2013 -**

Pleased to be free of the claustrophobic Hub, Amy huddled deep in her jacket as she hurried across Roald Dahl Plass, making her way to Mermaid Quay to find a chip shop. Despite the freezing night air and the imminent rain, the Quay was still busy with tourists seeking a meal from the many up-market restaurants and bars that dotted the area. Avoiding the crowds, Amy wandered a bit further until she found a small, out of the way chip shop named "Alexander's", which seemed to fit the bill. With a sigh of relief, she stepped out of the cold into the warm, lighted interior, the bell over the door jangling discordantly in warning of her arrival.

The only other occupant in the shop, an unattractive man with a pock-marked face and greasy black hair, wearing faded army fatigues, glanced up at her with a leer as she passed his table. Amy pointedly ignored him, focusing instead on the plump woman serving behind the counter.

"What can I get you, love?" the shop lady asked, her voice softened and blurred with a pretty Welsh accent. Amy noticed that her name tag read 'Cheryl'.

Amy ordered four serves of chips, but then, at the last minute, she changed it to five. After all, the Master might be evil, but he was also probably hungry by now.

Uncomfortably, she realised that the horrible man in the army fatigues hadn't taken his eyes off her since she had come in. "So..." he smirked now. "Scots, are you? Here on holiday, yeah?"

"I'm staying with friends," she replied curtly. "They're waiting for me outside."

"Karl Conrad, don't you dare start harassing this young lady!" Cheryl spoke up from behind the fryer. "You've been warned before. Next time I'll have the law on you so fast..."

"Aw, Cheryl, I was only trying to be friendly," the man whined, giving Amy a lecherous wink which made her feel ill. "Don't listen to her, sweet-cheeks. I used to _be _someone, you know. I used to have an important job with the government."

Cheryl snorted derisively. "Yeah, until they decided you were a few too many bananas short of a bunch and gave you the flick!"

"Until they realised I knew too much!" Karl retorted, drawing himself up proudly. "I was a guard on _The Valiant_, during the 2008 election campaign. Remember Harold Saxon, little lady? Remember how he killed the US President, Arthur Winters? Well, I was there! And it didn't happen like they said it did."

Amy started in shock. "You were on _The Valiant _in 2008?" she gasped.

"Yeah!" he said, pleased to have so successfully caught her interest. "And let me tell you, those Toclafane? They were real, not a hoax like the Government want you to believe. And Harold Saxon wasn't even human. He was an alien called the Master."

"Master, schmaster!" Cheryl scoffed. "Harold Saxon was human enough. He was just a bloody nutter, like you, so stop annoying everyone with your stupid conspiracy theories, Karl!"

"You'll all be sorry when I prove it!" Karl snarled. "I know there's a Torchwood secret base around here somewhere and when I find it, I'll blow the whole freakin' story wide open. Then the whole world will know that Karl Conrad was smarter than all of you!"

"Dream on, Karl," Cheryl giggled, rolling her eyes at Amy.

Concerned, Amy was about to question Karl further, when suddenly he began to glow. It began almost imperceptibly, a faint halo of blue-white light tracing his outline, surrounding him and clinging to him like some sort of creepy St Elmo's Fire. Alarmed, Amy took a step backwards.

Seeing the look on her face, he demanded, "What?"

But the light continued to grow brighter and brighter, until it was almost dazzling. Amy put her hand up to shield her eyes, even as the light seemed to implode into a whirling vortex with a rushing, sucking sound. When Amy looked again, the glow had gone and Karl had disappeared.

"Oh my God," Amy breathed. "That was Time-fire."

"Sorry, love?" Cheryl queried cheerfully, as if nothing had happened. ""Ere, your chips are ready."

"Didn't you _see_ that? Karl just vanished, right in front of you!" Amy exclaimed.

"Karl? Who's Karl?"

"Karl Conrad. Ugly bloke in army fatigues. He was right here! You were just talking to him!"

Cheryl looked at her with narrowed eyes, as if she was concerned for Amy's sanity. "I don't know anybody called Karl. And you're the only one who's been in here for the last hour. Are you feeling OK, love?"

In a daze, Amy paid for the chips and nearly ran out of the shop, into the driving rain. She had to get back to the Hub. She had to let the Doctor and Tejana know that people in Cardiff were beginning to disappear.

* * *

**- _The Hub_, March 2013 - **

"Karl Emerson Conrad, born 24 November 1984 in Cricklewood, London. Died December 2008, of unspecified causes, whilst employed as a guard on _The Valiant_," Tejana recited, reading from the screen. "It's all here in the Torchwood records. There's a photo here too."

Amy glanced at the picture, taking in the repulsive smirk, the greasy hair, the acne-scarred skin. Her face whitened and she dropped bonelessly to sit cross-legged on the floor, her legs seeming to fold under her. "That's him, I swear to God. That's the man I was speaking to in the chip shop. He knew all about _The Valiant_, and Harold Saxon and the Master. Then he just disappeared. What's going on, Tejana? Was he another temporal anomaly, like when I saw Ianto Jones?"

Tejana also seated herself on the floor, rubbing at her forehead, trying to ease the tension there. "Ianto? What's Ianto got to do with it?"

Amy blinked, suddenly realising that the Tejana from 2008 had no idea what she was talking about. "I saw him in the Torchwood kitchen yesterday, three years after he died," she explained. "The Doctor said he was a temporal anomaly, the result of two threads of time crossing that were never meant to touch."

"Oh," Tejana said, still puzzled, but sensing it was a long story. "No, I don't think your Karl was a temporal anomaly. I think he belonged in this time. But, thanks to the Master and his little games, history is now in flux. Something changed back in 2008, something has happened that wasn't supposed to, and this time around Karl got killed on board _The Valiant_."

"So he was wiped from the future," Amy murmured, suddenly understanding. "Which is why Cheryl doesn't remember him. But I do, because I'm a time-traveller, right?"

"Exactly right," Tejana approved. "Looks like the Doctor trained you well, Amy. Speaking of whom, we'd better get into the TARDIS and tell him about this."

"Will it help?"

"Probably not. All it means is that the Master is trying to change the past, which we already knew. But any information is better than none."

Amy put her head on one side, eyeing the strain in the Time Lady's face. "Are you OK, Tejana?"

"Sure, why wouldn't I be?" Tejana returned bitterly. "I'm trapped in a time-line not my own, where I don't understand a damn thing. My father has regenerated into a stranger, Jack is blaming me for things I haven't even done yet and worst of all...worst of all, soon I'm apparently going to lose my mind and fall in love with a murdering megalomaniac, who is currently trying to completely change the history of the Universe. What could be better?"

"He really does love you, you know," Amy said quietly.

"Sorry?"

"The Master from this time-line."

Tejana shot her an incredulous look of disbelief. "Yeah, right. I'd rather kiss a Dalek!"

"No, you wouldn't," Amy giggled, trying to conjure up a picture of an amorous Dalek and failing miserably. "I've seen the Daleks – definitely not snoggable!"

Despite the distinct lack of humour in the situation, Amy's mirth was contagious and Tejana couldn't help grinning back. "Oh great, you've seen the Daleks. So not only do I have the Master in my future, but I've got more Daleks to look forward to as well. You sure know how to cheer a girl up, Amy Pond."

Amy laughed, shaking the long red hair out of her face, her eyes sparkling with amusement. Then she reached out and grasped Tejana's hand, gripping it tightly in reassurance. "Look, I don't know anything about what happened in 2008 – they don't call it The Year That Never Was for nothing. But I do know what I've seen with my own eyes. And I saw the Master fight for your life, on the floor of Jack's office, when you were dying from aspirin poisoning. I saw the look in his eyes. He loves you, Tejana, and you love him, whatever the Doctor and Jack might think. So don't worry, everything's going to be fine."

Tejana squeezed her hand back, grateful for her attempt at comfort, inadequate and ineffective though it was. "Thanks, Amy. I'm so glad the Doctor's got someone like you in his future to look after him." Then, all at once, her smile changed to a bewildered frown, her arm stiffening as a flash of something else blazed across her consciousness. "Amy...who's Rory?"

The red-headed girl looked at her blankly. "Who?"

"Rory. Messy brown hair, blue eyes, big nose, check shirt, brown puffer vest..." the Time Lady reeled off. "I saw him in your mind."

Amy shrugged. "Nope, not ringing any bells."

"That's strange," Tejana said, scrutinising her closely. "I don't usually pick up human thoughts on an impromptu basis, especially with my mental shields at maximum. But that image was so strong. You were talking about love and a crystal clear impression of this Rory just blasted across your subconscious."

Amy's head felt hot, her thoughts unsettled and confused. Flustered, but not understanding why, she repeated crossly, "I _said_ I don't know any Rory."

For a moment, Tejana's quizzical gaze didn't waver. But before she could say anything else, the big cog door rumbled back and heavy footsteps echoed on the dark stairs leading up to Jack's office, interrupting her train of thought.

"Sounds like Jack's back," she said quietly. "I suppose I'd better go and speak to him."

"Yeah. And I'd better go and tell the Doctor about Karl," Amy added, relieved to be off the hook. "Hope he doesn't mind cold chips."

* * *

**- Jack's Office, _The Hub_, March 2013 - **

Tejana hesitated uncertainly outside Jack's office door, wanting to go in and yet feeling absurdly shy. She knew she was being ridiculous. This wasn't a stranger. This was _Jack_. One kiss couldn't have had this much impact on their relationship. After all, Jack had kissed her before and it had never changed anything. But, deep inside, she knew that this time _had _been different, because Jack himself was different.

She sighed. _Why did everything always have to be so complicated? _Raising her hand, she gave a brief knock at the door.

"Come in," Jack's voice said.

Entering, she saw that he was seated in his chair, tilting it back in a relaxed position, with his feet up on the desk. Like the rest of the Hub, his office was in darkness, lit only by a small lamp which cast a warm pool of light across his desk. He was tossing a small golden sphere, about the size of a large grapefruit, back and forth between his hands.

"Hey," she greeted him hesitantly. "You're back."

"Hey, yourself," he returned solemnly. "I didn't go far. Just up to the rooftops. It's where I go when I need to think."

Tejana nodded slowly, stepping into the room and closing the door. "I guess I would have already known that, if I was your Tejana."

He gave a rueful half-smile. "Yeah. Not much you don't know about me, in the future." Then, after a brief pause, he added, "I'm sorry...about before."

She shrugged. "It doesn't matter. You were right. We were being stupid, so let's just forget it, OK?"

Jack didn't answer, concentrating instead on the golden sphere as it arced between his hands.

"What's that?" she asked curiously, moving closer to him.

For a moment, Jack didn't seem to follow what she meant, his mind obviously far away. He stared at the small ball as if he had never seen it before. Then he glanced up at her, his blue eyes as opaque and as distant as the ocean.

"This?" he replied. "I don't know. It came through the Rift a few months ago. We haven't worked out what it is yet. The way things have been going around here lately, it's probably an inter-galactic bomb of some kind."

"Can I see it?"

He held it out to her, his warm fingers brushing hers as he passed it over. A small smile lit her face as she rolled the sphere between her hands, her fingers exploring the raised ridges of the delicate runes engraved across the surface, seeking the tiny catch that she knew must be there.

"It's not a bomb, Jack," she said softly.

"No? Then what is it?"

As he spoke, she found it, the slight indentation she had been looking for. With a gentle twist, she activated the secret spring and held her hands out flat towards him, the sphere resting on her palms. Slowly, the small ball began to rise into the air, hovering between Jack and Tejana like a fragile dragonfly. All at once, it began to unfold, the sides peeling back, unfurling like the petals of a flower. From deep inside, a pulse of warm illumination began to blossom forth, shimmering and gleaming like pixie-dust, unwinding and spreading until the room was filled with multi-coloured, ever-changing fractals of light. Jack gazed around in bewildered awe. He had never seen anything like this. It was like a miniature fireworks display of unrivalled magnificence, the intense colours and patterns almost more than his conscious mind could absorb.

"What is it?" he asked again, watching in fascination as the play of light and colour reflected across Tejana's lovely face.

She smiled, her eyes sparkling with teasing merriment. "It's a child's toy. A music box. The Jaare-Oregim sell them by the hundred in the street bazaars on the planet Lystra."

"A music box?"

"Sssshhh...listen..."

As she hushed him, the music box began to sing - a high, lilting, wordless melody of indescribable beauty, which joyfully wound its way in firm tendrils around his heart and tugged, bringing astonished tears to his eyes. He recognised this music. He had heard it before, once upon a dream.

"But that...that's the Song of the Universe..." he whispered incredulously.

Tejana nodded, her gaze questioning as she looked at him. "Few can hear it, fewer still can recognise it for what it is. The Jaare-Oregim are time-sensitive beings. Like Time Lords, they hear the Song from the moment they are born. It's an integral part of their culture, essential to their existence. But you, Jack, you hear it too?"

"I heard it with you," Jack choked out. "At the beginning of all things, as Time reformed around me, the Universe sang to me as I held you in my arms."

Suddenly, the tension between them was almost tangible. The haunting music and the soft, glowing light seemed to encircle them, shutting out the world and drawing them closer together. Slowly, Jack reached for her, pulling her to him, his hands trembling as though he couldn't help it. Tejana didn't try to move away, her eyes fixed steadily on his face.

"Jack..." she quavered, her voice almost inaudible. "I thought you didn't want to do this. Nothing we have can last, you know that."

Jack's hands came up to caress her face. "Forever doesn't make people happy, Tejana. Believe me, I should know. It's the moments hidden inside forever which make people happy. And there's nothing I want more than to share this moment with you, however long it lasts."

Then his mouth came down on hers, soft and hot, his arms tightening possessively around her. A tremor of mingled fear and anticipation shot through her as she felt the warmth of him through his shirt, shimmering against her skin. Their bodies twined together, suddenly sharing a language that needed no sound. Tejana felt her lips parting involuntarily under his, welcoming the heated invasion of his tongue. Jack made a small sound, deep in his throat as he lifted her gently and carried her across to the shabby old couch at the back of the room, his mouth hardening urgently against hers. Tejana made no protest, her hands sliding into his dark hair, not to push him away but to pull him closer, matching him kiss for kiss. It felt right to be here with him, so safe and comforting, surrounded and cradled by the Song of the Universe.

And if, while laying back on that couch, looking up into Jack's blue eyes, she suddenly found herself imagining a pair of wicked brown ones, that meant nothing, nothing at all.


	11. Chapter 11

_**Author's Note: Whoo-ee, the last chapter was a bit of a controversial one - some people loved the idea of Jack and Tejana temporarily together, some people hated it (I love you full-on Master fans, you are great!), some didn't care and (as always) a lot of people didn't bother to review, so I don't know what they thought, LOL!**_

_**Anyway, thanks for the following people for reviewing: GallifreanGirl, tardisandafirebolt, OhTex, KoscheithePianist (I'm so happy you are back, yayyyy!), Omniac, MayFairy, Beautiful Rogue, babybluepineapple, Aietradaea and iLuvTwiboyz!**_

_**Also, a big wave to my new reviewers, Lost Moon and Chia - I'm always so thrilled to get new reviewers, especially this far into what is quite a lengthy series, so I was so happy to hear your opinions. I hope you keep on reviewing and letting me know what you think!**_

_**More waves for xxTeam-Masterxx, jazz-sparks, Kaylie S and xxCoffee-and-Creamxx, if you are still reading!**_

_**Bit of a violence warning on this chapter, I'm afraid, but nothing too severe.**_

* * *

**CHAPTER ELEVEN**

**- The Flight Deck, _The Valiant_, December 2008 -**

The main doors to the flight deck slid open.

Apart from a skeleton night crew up on the Bridge, the Doctor was currently the only occupant of the large room. Crouching in his canvas tent, huddled in the filthy straw, he glanced up warily at the sound of the door, expecting to see the Master. Instead, a young man marched in and stood strictly to attention, facing the stairs leading up to the Bridge, not far from the Doctor's enclosure. He was dressed in the black uniform of the Master's elite bodyguard. The Doctor recognised him. He was one of Tejana's personal guard. He also recognised the dry, tight look in the boy's dark eyes. It was fear.

For a few moments, the Doctor waited. But nothing happened. No-one else came in and the boy continued to stand as still as a statue, as if his very life depended on it.

Anxiety tugged at the Doctor. What was one of Tejana's guards doing here all alone, looking so terrified? There had been all sorts of rumours floating around the ship in the past few weeks about the sordid things the Master was apparently doing to his daughter. He guessed that the Jones family purposely shielded him from the worst of the stories. Nevertheless, as day after day continued to pass without seeing her, his worry had been mounting unbearably.

"Pssst!" he hissed quietly, so the crew up on the Bridge couldn't hear him. "You there. What's your name?"

The young man blinked and swallowed, before swinging his gaze down to locate the Doctor in the tent. "It's Damon, Sir."

"Pleased to meet you, Damon, I'm the Doctor," the Time Lord said, cautiously emerging from his shelter, wincing at the ache in his ancient joints. "What's going on? You're Tejana's bodyguard, right? Where is she? Is she all right?"

"She's fine," Damon assured him. "She's in her rooms."

"Then why are you here?"

Damon hung his head, his face as white as a sheet. "I've offended the Master. I think...I think I'm going to be punished."

The Doctor frowned. The Master's punishments were never taken lightly on board _The Valiant_, which was why the human slaves did their absolute level best to avoid his notice at all times. Depending on his mood, his retribution could range from disfigurement, to disablement to death.

"What did you do?"

Damon gave him a rueful half-smile. "I had a snow-ball fight with your daughter."

"What?" the Doctor asked, confused, not sure he had heard correctly. "A _snow-ball_ fight? How did you manage that on board _The Valiant_?"

"Not on board. The Master took her down to walk the Earth, to a forest in Switzerland."

"He did _what_?" the Doctor snapped, more puzzled and more anxious than ever. "Listen, Damon, I haven't seen my daughter for nearly three weeks. I need to know that she's all right. Tell me the truth, is he hurting her? Is he...forcing her? Abusing her?"

The young guard opened his mouth to answer, but before he could speak, the doors slid back again and the Master entered, followed by four burly guardsmen. The Doctor could see at once that his enemy was furious. The anger and frustration was present in every taut line of his body, his eyes burning with incandescent rage. The Doctor stared at him. The Master was generally unpredictable and often irrational, but surely a snowball fight, whatever the circumstances, couldn't have upset him this much. Something else was going on here.

Damon straightened up even more, his jaw muscles twitching in barely controlled terror. The Master didn't even spare him a glance.

"Good evening, Doctor," he said, his voice low and deadly. "I just thought I'd let you know...as promised, I've captured your wandering friend, Martha Jones. She's currently confined downstairs in the cell next to yours. I thought maybe you could pass the time banging on the walls in Morse code or something. Won't that be fun?"

"What are you going to do with her?" the Doctor gritted out, trying to hide his dismay at the news. The Master just kept on winning, triumphant at every turn, and it seemed that this time the Doctor could do nothing to stop him.

"I haven't decided. I'm going to have to think long and hard about that!" the Master returned harshly. "I'm very, very tired of that woman causing problems for me."

The Doctor studied him closely. It was odd. The Master didn't look like a man who was winning. Knowing his arch-enemy as he did, he would have expected him to be jubilant at the news of Martha's capture, gloating and effervescent, eager to maliciously taunt the Doctor with this fresh evidence of his downfall. So what could have caused this strange, broodingly dark mood? Was it something Martha had done? Or something else altogether?

"And Damon here? What are you planning to do with him?"

The Master's gaze lit with a fresh blaze of anger. "_Damon_ needs to remember his place. This will be one lesson he won't forget. And you, Doctor, are going to watch."

With that, he nodded to the quartet of guards. Two of them stepped forward and seized Damon's arms, holding him firmly. At first, he struggled in panic, but then he seemed to accept the futility of his effort and just stood still, waiting for the inevitable.

The Master folded his arms, his eyes narrowed cruelly. "Begin."

The other two men rolled up their sleeves and curled their hands into fists. Then the blows began, raining down on Damon's defenceless body in a flurry of violence, each man taking turns to inflict a systematic, bestial beating, hitting the boy everywhere at will, on the head, the ribs, the stomach, the groin...

The Doctor turned his head aside, sickened by the rampant, gratuitous savagery. "Stop it!" he said to the Master. "Stop it now!"

"Keep watching, Doctor," the Master answered coldly. "Or it will go on longer."

Helplessly, the Doctor forced himself to observe the rest of the punishment. Finally, when Damon passed out, his bloody, opened mouth sucking for air, his body hanging limply like the carcass of a dead animal, the Master called a halt.

"That's enough. I don't want to kill him. Take him down to the medical bay."

The Doctor's insides were churning as he watched the guards drag the unresponsive Damon away. "You didn't need to do that! He's just a boy!" he cried angrily. "What's really going on here? Why did you have to punish him? And why make me watch?"

Something stirred deep within the Master's gaze, something sharp and powerful. If the Doctor hadn't known better, he would have said it was pain.

"Maybe because you were the one who taught me how to make bloody snow angels!" he snarled cryptically, before turning away and walking towards the door.

The Doctor stared after him in bewilderment. _ Snow angels? What the...?_

"Wait..."

The Master looked back at him, his handsome face twisted in contempt. "'Night then. Sweet dreams, Doctor."

The doors slid open for a final time and then closed behind him, leaving the Doctor with a thousand more unanswered questions.

* * *

**- The Morgue, _The Valiant_, December 2008 -**

Wearily, Professor Simon Vane pushed his glasses back up his nose, trying to stretch his aching back muscles. He was getting nowhere fast. He knew he shouldn't be surprised. After all, there was no reason to think that this autopsy would be any more informative than the six previous ones he had already undertaken. But he couldn't help hoping for some clue, some small indication, some trace of a reason why these people had died.

Security Chief Anderson had made it very clear that both their tails were on the line if he couldn't come up with anything. Professor Vane didn't like Security Chief Anderson. He was an arrogant, self-important little man, who treated every other human on board _The Valiant _as though they were fit only for him to wipe his feet on.

Back in the old days, Professor Vane had been the Chief Forensic Medical Officer and Head of the Department of Forensic Medical Sciences at the Forensic Science Service, London Laboratory. Back then, he had a string of letters after his name, each representing an exclusive academic qualification. He had prestige, respect, authority and wealth. People had hung off his every word. He had been important and influential, he had _mattered_. He had even been in line for an OBE, before Harold Saxon took power and everything changed. Now, like the lowest menial on board this ship, Simon Vane did what he was told. He had to grit his teeth and take orders from inferior men, like that oaf Anderson, whose only notable credentials in life were that he was useful to the Master. And Security Chief Anderson had told him to find out why seven people had suddenly dropped dead of unknown causes. Or else.

Closing his eyes briefly, the Professor ran the list of victims through in his mind once more: Wesley McNeill, 17, kitchen hand; Malcolm Willoughby, 43, engineer; Jeffrey Wallace, 22, cleaner; Jared Sinclair, 38, flight crew; Ian Morrison, 25, maintenance officer; Cameron Kirby, 32, pastry cook; and lastly, the current body on the autopsy table, Karl Conrad, 24, guard.

Apart from the fact that they were all male, none of the victims had anything in common - not age, not occupation, not location of death. Professor Vane had run every test and analysis he could think of, but still he had hit a blank wall. There were no signs of trauma, no gun-shot wounds, stab wounds or strangulation marks. There was no evidence of disease or any form of toxicology.

Professor Vane looked down at the corpse lying in front of him. Karl Conrad had not been an attractive man in life and, in death, his appearance had not been improved by the gaping 'Y' incision the professor had cut into his upper body. His chest cavity was now open and empty, all his organs removed, with two huge swathes of skin peeled back to either side. The top of his skull was missing, exposing the brain, with the loose scalp drawn down in two gory flaps over the sides of his face.

The Professor sighed. As much as he hated to admit it, it was time to ask for help. He had heard that the Master had recently arrested the Torchwood team and had imprisoned them aboard _The Valiant_. Professor Vane had never had any dealings with Torchwood, but he knew who they were and what they did. He also knew of their Medical Officer, Doctor Owen Harper, whose role within the covert organisation apparently included performing autopsies on folk who had died in very strange circumstances. Perhaps Doctor Harper could throw some light on the fate that had overtaken these seven people.

Turning his back on the autopsy table, he began to strip off his surgical gloves. All at once, a strange odour reached him, strong enough to overwhelm even the pervasive smell of formalin and disinfectant which usually filled the room. The Professor sniffed curiously. It smelled almost like an odd mixture of ozone and old blood. It was nauseating - dense, wet, vile, almost shockingly sweet, like the vomit of a drunk.

Suddenly, he sensed movement behind him. Whirling around, he stared in shock at the blood-stained autopsy table. Slowly, ever so slowly, the mangled corpse of Karl Conrad was beginning to sit up. Professor Vane almost stopped breathing in sheer revulsion. He had never seen anything more horrifying in his entire life.

"No! It's not possible!" he gasped, backing away.

A pair of blank, lifeless eyes swivelled towards him. They were obsidian-dark, completely without pupils, as deep and as empty as coal pits. Sluggishly, without hurry, the thing slid off the table and began to advance towards the terrified human, its arms outstretched as if to embrace him.

Nearly paralysed with fear, Professor Vane continued to retreat until, clumsy in his panic, he collided with a wheeled instrument tray, sending metal implements clattering noisily to the ground. His heart pounding wildly, he snatched up a razor-sharp surgical scalpel and brandished it before him threateningly.

"Keep back!" he cried frantically. "I'm warning you, stay back!"

Heedlessly, the creature continued to move forward, its feet dragging along the ground as it shambled towards him. With a strength born of desperation, the Professor drove the scalpel into his assailant's carotid artery, a thrust which would have immediately felled any living man. Unfortunately for him, Karl Emerson Conrad was no longer a living man. Inhumanly strong fingers closed on the Professor's neck, crushing his larynx and shattering the small bones in his neck as he struggled futilely for breath. His eyes bulged obscenely, his tongue extruding from his gaping mouth as he died, like a loathsome strip of meat.

The creature paused briefly, the fresh corpse dangling limply from its hands. Then, as if obeying some silent command, it allowed the dead man to slip to the floor, where he lay abandoned in a mess of tangled limbs. Moving in the same slow, measured pace with which it had arisen, it returned to the autopsy table and lay back down, as though nothing had happened.

Far away, in another part of _The Valiant_ altogether, the demon known as Legion threw back its head and laughed, safely cocooned in the depths of its stolen body.

_The time was close now, so very close._

* * *

**- Tejana's Suite, _The Valiant_, 2008 -**

Tejana couldn't stop shivering. Great shudders racked her body from head to toe as she huddled on one of the sumptuous lounges in her luxurious suite, gazing out at the night sky. She couldn't remember ever feeling so broken, so empty, so lost and alone, not since she had stood in front of the Untempered Schism long ago on Gallifrey. Handling her gently, like a child, Peter had stripped off her wet jacket, wrapped her in a blanket and turned the heating up high, but still the trembling persisted. He had hovered anxiously for a while, but in the end Tejana had told him to go. She needed to be on her own.

Her right hand seemed to ache unbearably. She kept staring at it, as if she expected it to be damaged in some way from where she had struck the Master. But deep down she knew it was all in her tortured imagination. The only thing that was really aching, the only thing that was really damaged, was her soul. Over and over again, she replayed the scene in her mind – Martha's battered face; the shame in the expressions of the Torchwood team; the ugly truth in the brown eyes she loved so much; the pain and betrayal that had flooded through her as she realised nothing had changed since The Year That Never Was; and then the sharp, savage sting as her hand impacted with his cheek.

_Bastard!_

She had seen the rage instantly flame into life in his gaze, the immediate desire to punish her. She had waited for the blow, craving it, wanting him to crush every bit of love she had ever felt for him and grind it underfoot. She didn't want to have to choose any more, didn't want to be so agonisingly torn between what she felt for him and what she knew to be right.

But he hadn't done it. He had looked into her face and he had held back.

_I'll never hurt you, Ana._

Hot, painful tears began to course slowly down her cheeks as she remembered his promise on the day she had taken his hand and followed him into his TARDIS, leaving her entire life behind her.

_Damn it, Koschei, don't you understand that you ARE hurting me? And not just me, but yourself too. You're destroying both of us with your idiotic stubbornness! _

But she couldn't make him listen and she couldn't make him stop. Jack and Martha and Torchwood couldn't make him stop. Even the Doctor couldn't make him stop. This time he was going to win and there was nothing any of them could do about it. Dully, she wondered what the Universe would be like with the Master in total control. She couldn't even begin to imagine it. Worse, she had no idea what he expected her role to be. His lover, his consort, the mother of his children. His prisoner, loving him and hating him, for the rest of her life. Just the thought made her begin to shiver all over again.

Even so, she couldn't help seeing in her mind the gorgeous, curly-haired child in the vision of the Could-Have-Been-King, the son she should have shared with the Master. Her hand crept under the enveloping blanket to settle on her stomach once more. Was that still in their future? She didn't think she was pregnant yet, but she couldn't be sure. Ordinarily, she would sense a new little Time Lord mind coming into being almost as soon as it happened. But with the psi-bracelet in place, she could no longer rely on the sixth sense to warn her if she was with child. It was unlikely – Gallifreyans didn't conceive nearly as easily as humans. Tejana could remember being fascinated at the speed with which Gwen had become pregnant after her marriage to Rhys Williams. Humans seemed to take childbirth so casually, probably because there were so many of them. It was so different to the reverence and importance placed on the advent of children in Gallifreyan culture, where offspring had been much more rare.

She rubbed wearily at her eyes, trying to drive back the fog of exhaustion which numbed her brain. She was so tired, especially after her exertions in the snow, but she didn't dare to sleep. The peculiar nightmare grew more terrifying every time she experienced it, until she was almost too frightened to close her eyes. She had been tempted so many times to confide in the Master, to tell him of the invisible creature which stalked her dreams. But then she would feel the pinch of the psi-bracelet he had placed on her arm and her pride would forbid her to speak. After today, the idea of asking for his help seemed even more impossible.

Suddenly, the door to her suite opened. Clutching the blanket around her like a shield, Tejana jumped to her feet and whirled around, expecting to see the Master. Instead, to her complete shock, she realised that her visitor was Lucy Saxon.

Peter hesitated in the doorway, clearly in two minds about whether he should allow the human woman to enter. It was obvious to the bodyguard that a head-on meeting between the Master's wife and his lover could not be a good thing. However, despite her apparent fall from grace, he had received no orders countermanding Lucy's authority, leaving him unsure as to what he should do.

"It's all right, Peter," Tejana said quietly.

The bodyguard nodded and retreated slightly, but did not leave the room, his eyes watchful. Lucy and Tejana stared at each other. As always, the human woman looked absolutely stunning. She was dressed in a short, black, silken cocktail dress, her perfect figure alluringly displayed. Her ice blue eyes glittered in her beautiful face, her delicate pink and white skin as fine as porcelain. Her long, flaxen hair shone like burnished gold under the lights. In her five inch stiletto heels, she towered over the smaller Time Lady. Yet again, Tejana felt at a distinct disadvantage with her damp, tangled curls and her tear-streaked face. This time, however, she was already too miserable to care.

"What do you want, Lucy?" she asked, keeping her voice steady with an effort.

Lucy's perfect face tightened in anger. "You will address me as Mrs Saxon. I'm still Harry's wife, no matter how much you both choose to ignore that fact!"

"His name isn't Harry, _Mrs Saxon_," Tejana retorted. "It never was."

Lucy began to circle her, prowling around her like a wild animal trying to decide when to pounce. Tejana stood stock still, her chin raised proudly, trying not to waver on her feet. After the day she'd already had, this confrontation was absolutely the last thing she needed. There was something different about Lucy tonight, something Tejana had never seen in her before, some kind of weird edge. She found herself wondering if the human woman, never particularly stable at the best of times, had finally snapped.

"Oh, you think you're so special, don't you?" Lucy sneered. "Looking at me like I'm a piece of dirt, just because you're an alien, like him. Well, let me tell you, you're not special. You're nothing more than an inter-galactic, husband-stealing slut!"

The Time Lady's lips pressed tight, anger beginning to seethe deep inside at Lucy's presumption. That the human woman should _dare_! Tejana had been coming to Earth with the Doctor since she was a young girl. Her father had taught her to love all things human. Many of her best friends were human. But for all that, she was still a Gallifreyan. And to a Gallifreyan, humans would never be any more than a lesser species.

"He's a Time Lord," she said coldly, each word enunciated like a shard of ice. "He walks in eternity. You're nothing but an inferior human. No marriage contract between you could ever be meaningful or binding."

Lucy hissed in fury, her fingers curling into claws. "He _loved_ me, before you and your father suddenly came into our lives and wrecked everything!"

"We didn't suddenly come into his life, we've always been there," Tejana replied quietly, feeling the anger slide away again, submerging into a deep well of weariness. "And he never loved you."

Something moved behind Lucy's eyes, something dark and indefinable and ancient. For a brief moment, her gaze was snake-like, hypnotic, almost unrecognisable. Tejana blinked, knowing that something wasn't right, trying to get her tired mind to focus. But before she could identify what she was seeing, Lucy pulled back her hand and struck her violently across the face with preternatural force, sending her reeling backwards to collide with the sharp edge of the glass coffee table. A streak of searing pain sliced across her forehead, blood already streaming down her face, seeping into her eyes and blurring her vision. Dimly, she heard Peter shouting for assistance as he tackled a struggling Lucy.

Shakily, Tejana put her hand up to her head and then brought it back down to stare at the lurid crimson which stained her fingers. All at once, helpless, hysterical laughter began to bubble out of her throat, uncontrollable and wild.

_Well, it was funny, wasn't it? She hit the Master, then Lucy hit her, and around it went, around and around and around, spinning and spinning, like the room..._

And to the sound of her own ugly laughter, she went down into the darkness of unconsciousness.

* * *

**- Excerpt from the Diary of Lucy Saxon, The Valiant, December 2008 - **

_I've been locked in my rooms. They said that I hit her. I don't remember seeing her. I don't remember hitting her. I don't remember even going to her room. I've never hit anyone before. How can I not remember? Harry is going to be so angry with me. _

_My head is burning. It feels like it's on fire. It hurts. It hurts. I'm scared. _

_I don't know who I am or what I'm doing any more. I don't remember things. So many things. There are big blanks in my mind. I suddenly find myself places and I don't know how I got there. Hours go by on the clock but I don't know what I've done._

_I was feeling fine when I first started writing this. I still feel fine. No, I don't. I think I'm sick. I can't remember things. Lots of things. I'm so scared. There's no-one to help me._

_I mustn't forget who I am! My name is Lucy Saxon. I'm the youngest daughter of Lord Cole of Tarminster. I'm married to Harold Saxon, Prime Minister of Britain._

_My name is Lucy Saxon. I'm the youngest daughter of Lord Cole...oh God, I can't remember my father's face. I can't remember where I went to school. Something is moving inside my head, my skull is splitting open, it hurts, it hurts..._

_My name is Lucy Saxon...Lucy, Lucy, Lucy!_

_Harry? Help me, Harry, please help me, it hurts so much..._

_My name is...my name is..._

_MY NAME IS LEGION, FOR WE ARE MANY._


	12. Chapter 12

**_Author's Note: Thank you everyone for all your lovely reviews on the previous chapter. In case you hadn't guessed, I love reviews! Hearing your opinions lets me know if I am on track or not with my writing, so please keep them coming!_**

**_So huge thanks to the following people: GallifreanGirl, OhTex, tardisandafirebolt, Jiwa, iLuvTwiboyz, Omniac, Lost Moon, babybluepineapple, GuesssWho, MayFairy, Aietradaea and Beautiful Rogue. You all rock!_**

**_A specially big wave to my new reviewers: The never ending drums and Catelly. Having new reviewers leave a comment always makes my day, so thank you!  
_**

_**This chapter has a bit of gratuitous Owen for OhTex (and also for me, because I hated it when he and Tosh died on Torchwood!)**_

_**Also, Omniac, I apologise in advance - you will see why when you read it, LOL :0(**_

_**Once again, I struggled a bit getting this chapter to come out right, so I hope it is all OK...here goes then, fingers crossed!  
**_

* * *

**CHAPTER TWELVE**

**- Tejana's Suite, _The Valiant_, Christmas Eve, 2008 -**

"Tejana! Tejana, can you hear me?"

She stirred, the insistent voice reaching her through the comforting blackness, dragging her unwillingly back to the light. _Oh stars, her head hurt_! It felt like someone had dropped a grand piano on her from a great height. Forcing her reluctant eyelids to open, she blinked painfully, trying to clear the mists enough to see who was hovering over her.

The person was familiar enough. Close-cropped chestnut hair, heavy-lidded cynical brown eyes, a sharp nose and a too-wide mouth, the assortment of disparate features combining to make a face which was not conventionally good-looking, yet strangely attractive and compelling.

"Owen," she murmured drowsily, giving him a small smile.

He raised his eyebrows in what seemed to be slight surprise. "Yes, that's right, Doctor Owen Harper, I'm the Torchwood Medical Officer," he responded in a professional voice. "You've been injured. Can you tell me how many fingers I'm holding up?"

He held up three fingers in front of her eyes. Tejana winced with the effort of concentrating on them.

"Twenty five," she said sarcastically, scowling at him crossly. "What happened? Did I get jumped by a Weevil again? Are the others all OK?"

Owen looked at her strangely. "Tejana, do you know where you are?"

"The Hub, I suppose," she answered, trying to sit up. What was going on? Why was Owen being so formal, as though she was a stranger? It wasn't like him to pass up a chance to be a smart-ass, especially if she had managed to get herself injured on the job. Gallows humour had always been one of his specialities. "Why are you acting so weird? Where's Jack?"

But even as she spoke, a poignant recollection intruded into her mind:

_Standing beside Jack in The Hub, a steel suitcase open before them on the table. Tears of grief on her face as she picked up Owen's stethoscope and laid it gently in the case with his other possessions. Jack crying as he held a folded, many-buttoned coat to his chest, just as he had often embraced his stubborn friend, before placing it in a plastic bag marked with the Torchwood symbol and sealing it away in the archives with the metal case. And, nearby, a sad-faced Ianto typing into the personnel data-base: DR OWEN HARPER, FILE INACTIVE, DECEASED._

Tejana drew in her breath, trying to reconcile the acute memory with the living man she saw before her. In her time-line, Owen was dead. Twice, in fact, the second time permanently. Not only that, she also realised she was lying in a huge feather bed on black satin sheets. This _definitely _wasn't the Hub, unless Jack had decided to redecorate while she wasn't looking.

"Is she going to be all right?" another voice demanded.

"From the little I know about the physiology of your species, yes, I think so," Owen said tightly, his expression cold as he glanced over his shoulder. "The gash is already beginning to heal and there doesn't seem to be any permanent cranial damage."

Following his gaze, Tejana saw a blonde man in a suit standing nearby. Both her hearts skipped a beat. _The Master_. Suddenly everything clicked into place again, as though her brain had finally decided to reboot. The temporal displacement, _The Valiant_, the snow-ball fight with Damon, slapping the Master, the confrontation with Lucy – it all came flooding back in a rush. Putting her hand up to her head, she felt a large sticking plaster spread across her forehead.

_Gods, no wonder she had a headache_!

"You'd better be right, Doctor Harper, for your own sake," the Master replied, an undertone of menace in his voice. Then, to the nearby guard, he ordered, "Take him back to his cell."

Suddenly, Tejana couldn't bear to see him walk away. "Owen!" she cried sharply.

He looked back at her, his face wary. She stared at him, silence choking her throat. There was so much she wanted to tell him, but - all at once - she didn't have the words. This man didn't even know who she was. To him, she was just another enemy, the lover of the alien overlord who had enslaved his planet and tortured his leader in front of him. He had never worked with her, never annoyed the hell out of her, never joked with her, never saved her life, like the Owen of her time-line – and the way things were going, he probably never would. What could she possibly say to him?

_Be careful, Owen? Tell Tosh you love her, before it's too late, Owen? Please don't die, Owen?_

He would think she was completely insane and he would be right. This was another very good reason why a Time Lord should never cross their own time-line. She had already grieved for Owen, had already accepted his loss and let him go in her hearts, just as she had with Tosh and Ianto. But with the Master so determined to change the course of events in this time-line, everything was in flux. Who knew what the future now held for any of them?

"Thank you," she said simply.

Owen nodded in brief acknowledgement, his gaze speculative as he gave her one of his oddly charming, lop-sided smiles. Then he departed with his guard and left her alone with the Master.

For a moment, there was an uncomfortable silence. Tejana swallowed, her eyes averted from the other Time Lord's face, not wanting to see the reddened mark her hand had left there. Now that the blazing inferno of anger between them had subsided, she wasn't quite sure what was left in its place.

Then she felt the bed give as he sat down on the edge of it. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine," she lied. "Owen's right. I can feel it healing already."

He reached out and grasped her chin, gently tilting her head back and forth as he inspected her bandage. "You look awful," he said frankly.

Despite the tension vibrating between them, she felt a bubble of annoyance and offended vanity rising inside.

"Oh, thanks a lot, Prince Charming," she snapped. "Don't hold back, tell me what you really think!"

"What I really think?" he echoed softly, his voice as taut as a wire, his eyes dark and intense as they raked her flushed face. "_This_ is what I really think."

With that, he bent his head and his mouth found hers with hungry urgency. Tejana's first instinct was to fight him. No matter how much her body craved his, she still couldn't forget the bitter scene up on the runway of _The Valiant_. But then, feeling him pressing so close to her, she changed her mind and her soft lips parted under his in deliberate invitation. The Master gave a guttural sound of pleasure and savagely deepened the kiss, his tongue twining possessively with hers, effectively conveying the wordless message that, no matter what, she still belonged to him. Quivering in response, Tejana ran her hands up under his suit jacket, caressing and exploring, pulling him closer still. Finally, reluctantly, he drew back, leaving her shaken and breathless.

"You're exhausted. You need to get some rest," he said abruptly, getting to his feet. "We'll finish this..._discussion_...about what I think later."

"Wait, Koschei! I need to know - what happened to Lucy? Is she all right?"

"You don't need to worry about Lucy. She's been confined to her rooms. I'll make sure she doesn't come anywhere near you again."

"No, you don't understand. That's not what I'm worried about!" Tejana exclaimed. "I don't think it was her fault. Koschei, there's something wrong with her, something really, really wrong."

"Like I said, Ana, get some sleep," he said tersely, clearly not wanting to discuss the subject any further.

Tejana cursed softly under her breath as the door closed behind him. She didn't know what else she had expected. He was turning not listening into an art form these days. An anxious shiver wound up her spine as she thought of the fiendish look on Lucy's face right before the other woman had exploded into violence. And that wasn't the only thing bothering her. She couldn't be sure, but she thought she remembered a distinctive odour reaching her nostrils just as she had passed out. _Ozone and old blood._ Lucy had smelled just like the fearsome creature stalking Tejana's dreams. The coincidence was far too great to be ignored. Somehow she had to find out what it all meant, with or without the Master's help.

But at least she was no longer defenceless. With one eye on the door, she surreptitiously removed a slender gold and silver rod from its place of concealment up her sleeve, deftly sliding the familiar object back down into her waiting hand. It was her laser screwdriver, the gift the Master had given her on the Eye of Orion and then taken from her again once they arrived back on _The Valiant_. She had felt it in his pocket when he had first leaned over to kiss her. Distracted by her intentionally passionate embrace, he had not even noticed her slipping it out of the inner recesses of his jacket. Tejana had not utilised her pick-pocketing skills for a very long time, but it seemed she still had the knack.

"I'm sorry, Koschei," she whispered ruefully. "But once a Guild Thief of Mahanaim, always a Guild Thief of Mahanaim."

Having the screwdriver was a definite advantage. Now all she needed to do was to decide how best to use it.

* * *

**- The Kitchens, _The Valiant_, Christmas Eve, 2008 -**

_Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!_

Francine Jones looked up at the maid-service call board on the wall in the kitchen of _The Valiant_, her eyes narrowed in fury.

_Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!_

"Oooooh, that _woman_!" she snarled. "What does she want now? Expecting us to wait on her hand and foot like some kind of princess!"

Tish looked at her mother in concern. Life on board _The Valiant _was not agreeing with Francine. She was beginning to look worn out, old before her time, with deep lines of bitterness and discontent engraved into her face. From the very beginning, it had amused the Master to dress them both as maids, forcing them to serve his wife like menials, knowing that it would gall Francine above all things. Lucy had never let them forget it, ringing her buzzer constantly for the least little thing. Tish could remember once trekking all the way from the kitchen up to the luxurious state suite, only to find that Lucy had called her because she had dropped an ear-ring on the floor and couldn't be bothered bending down to get it. For six months, the Jones family had endured their servitude because they had no choice. But now they had the added burden of knowing that Martha had been captured and was being held at the Master's mercy. Francine was terrified that the Master would have her oldest daughter executed and her nerves were stretched to breaking point. Seeing the strain in her mother's face, Tish couldn't help worrying that Francine's fragile mind might snap at any minute.

_Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!_

"I'll go, Mum!" Tish offered, before Francine could start on another tirade. "You sit down and put your feet up for a bit."

"Oh, would you?" her mother said thankfully. "Otherwise I might be forced to strangle the spoilt little bitch."

"Sshhh! Someone might hear you!" Tish warned.

Francine smirked. "Who would care? Everyone knows _he_ doesn't want her any more. She's no better than the rest of us now."

"Mum! Just...give it a rest, would you?" the girl exclaimed, wishing her mother would learn to hold her tongue.

Leaving Francine sitting sulkily in the kitchen, Tish headed quickly for the lift, not wanting to give Lucy an excuse to complain about her tardiness.

* * *

**- Lucy Saxon's Suite, _The Valiant_, Christmas Eve, 2008 - **

When Tish arrived at Lucy's state suite, she was surprised to see a guard posted outside the door.

"Mrs Saxon rang for me," she said curtly. The guard, an older man with a greying crew-cut, looked her up and down assessingly. Apparently satisfied that she was harmless, he silently unlocked the door to allow her entry and then firmly closed it behind her.

Inside, the suite was lit only by a few dim lamps, the heavy blinds still drawn across the large windows to exclude the bright morning sunlight. Lucy Saxon was standing in the sitting area, her back facing the door, her blonde hair flowing loosely over her shoulders. As always, she was dressed in an evening gown, this time a short, black satin number. Tish hesitated uneasily. There was a strange, oppressive atmosphere in the room. It made her flesh crawl, the small hairs standing up on the nape of her neck. _And what was that putrid smell...?_

"You rang, Mrs Saxon?" she asked timidly, hoping that whatever the woman wanted could be done quickly so she could get out of here as soon as possible.

"Yes," Lucy said flatly. "Come over here."

Again, Tish paused. It sounded like Lucy's voice, but there was something unsettling about it, something...not right.

"I said, come here, girl!" Lucy insisted, her back still facing Tish.

With all her heart, Tish wanted to refuse. But then an image of her sister's face flashed across her mind's eye. Gossip said that Lucy no longer had any influence with the Master, but Tish couldn't risk Martha's life on a tangle of conflicting rumours. Whatever happened, she still couldn't afford to offend the Master's wife.

Reluctantly, she moved over to stand behind Lucy, wrinkling her nose as the pungent smell seemed to get stronger and stronger.

"How can I help you, Mrs Saxon?"

At last, Lucy turned to face her. Tish blanched in disbelief, terror rising like a sickness in her throat. The woman's visage had changed beyond all recognition, a demonic grin stretching her once lovely face, her perfect skin now tattooed with a glowing intaglio of silvery veins. The serpentine marks coiled around her bare arms and up her slender neck to her face, where they spread in a delicate filigree across her cheeks and her forehead, the lacy pattern undeniably alien but also strangely beautiful. But most blood-curdling of all were Lucy's eyes. No longer blue, they were wide and yellow, with narrow, vertical, reptilian pupils which seemed to expand as she glared unblinkingly at Tish. The girl wanted to scream for help, wanted to run, but somehow she couldn't. She just stood there, frozen, staring into those ever-widening black pupils, falling into them, down into a deep, dark well, drowning in the infinite blackness. Lucy's distorted face came closer and closer. Caught in a hypnotic trance, Tish was unable to struggle as the other woman's lips descended on to her own, where they caught and held, sucking like a leech. A stream of diamond-hard particles erupted from Lucy's mouth, boiling between her lips like hot, acrid bile, flooding into Tish's throat in choking deluge, invading and consuming her until there was nothing left.

Her work done, Lucy stepped back and waited, her snake-like eyes never leaving her prey. Tish stood motionless before her, as still as a stone statue, her head bowed. Silver gleamed across the girl's skin, first circling her wrists and then trickling rapidly up her smooth, brown arms, a web of glittering filaments weaving and twining upwards until her neck and face were veined with a tracery of iridescent lines.

Slowly, Tish raised her head and opened wide her glistening eyes, the corrupted yellow orbs locked in vile communion with Lucy's. Her lips drew back over her teeth in a horrific smile as the voice of the ancient entity possessing her echoed cavernously from her ravaged throat.

"_MY NAME IS LEGION, FOR WE ARE MANY."_

_

* * *

_

**- The Kitchens, _The Valiant_, Christmas Eve, 2008 -**

Francine had hardly had time to get comfortable when Tish returned to the kitchen.

"Back already?" the older woman said in surprise. "What did Her Ladyship want this time?"

Tish stared at her for a long moment without speaking, her dark eyes flat and opaque. Then she replied, "She wants to see you."

Francine made a small sound of annoyance in the back of her throat. "Me? Whatever for?"

Again, her daughter did not answer. Francine looked at her closely. There was something odd about Tish's manner, something which hadn't been there when she left to answer Lucy's summons.

"Are you all right, love?" she asked worriedly. "That bitch didn't say anything to upset you, did she?"

Tish shrugged. "I'm fine. You'd better go. She's waiting."

As Francine turned to leave, she thought she caught a fleeting flash of yellow glaring in the depths of her daughter's eyes. However, when she glanced back, there was nothing there.

_Just a trick of the light_, she thought uneasily, moving towards the lift.

In the background, one of the chefs yelled, "Oi, Tish, snap to it. This lunch tray needs taking up to Lady Tejana's suite, pronto!"

Tish's head rotated slowly to look at the chef, a cold smile on her lips. "Consider it done."

* * *

**- Corridor outside Tejana's Suite, _The Valiant, _Christmas Eve 2008 -**

Peter Evans stood on guard outside Tejana's suite, his legs apart and his hands behind his back, in the classic "at ease" position of a professional soldier. He had been on duty for a full twenty-four hours now and he was very tired. With Damon still in the Medical Bay, nobody had come to relieve him. But Peter was an ex-SAS officer – he had excelled in all manner of endurance training. He had served in both the Gulf War and in Afghanistan. Hardship was nothing new to him. Even so, he couldn't help feeling a tiny flash of anger towards his friend. He had_ told _the stupid young idiot to stay out of the Master's business. But no, Damon had to go and get personally involved with the Master's woman, of all the bird-brained things to do! He was bloody lucky he hadn't ended up dead. Peter's heart hitched a little at the thought. Although he would never admit it out loud, the thought of losing Damon was a painful one. The boy was one of the few people left in the world that Peter cared about.

A hard lump formed in his throat. _A year ago today_. _A year since he had lost Rebecca and Jade. __How could it seem like yesterday and at the same time like an eternity?_

He could still see their faces so clearly. Rebecca, his wife, with her cloud of ginger curls, laughing cornflower blue eyes and beautiful smile. Jade, his eight-year-old daughter, with her mother's hair and her impish dimples and long colt-like limbs. The two most precious people in his life, wiped out in an instant. They had decided to do some last minute Christmas shopping. Jade had begged him to go too, but he had wanted to put his feet up and watch a program on the telly. They had never come home. _The Christmas Star, that came to kill. _He had seen the breaking news on the television, the screaming crowds running from the alien space-ship raining death upon the London streets. But he had never for a moment believed that, when it was all over, his Rebecca and his Jade would be on the list of the dead. He had never been able to shake the guilt, the agonising thought that if he had gone with them, he could somehow have saved them.

Unbidden, the tears rose in his eyes. Angrily, he blinked them away, forcing himself to focus on the here and now. It was the only way he had found to survive the pain that constantly threatened to drag him under, the only way he managed to live on when they were dead.

Suddenly, startling him, the doors to the lift opened. At once, he was fully alert, his gaze hard and watchful. He had made a huge mistake allowing Lucy Saxon into Tejana's rooms. Surprisingly, the Master had appeared to be more concerned about Tejana's welfare than about allocating blame for the incident, for the time being at least. However, it was not an error Peter intended to repeat.

To his relief, he recognised the small figure in the maid's uniform as Tish Jones. Peter didn't know Tish very well, but she had always seemed like a nice sort of a kid. She was carrying a tray loaded with covered dishes.

"Is that Lady Tejana's lunch?" he asked.

"Yes," she responded, her dark eyes holding his unblinkingly. "I'll take it in to her."

Peter frowned. Tish knew the procedure better than that. The Master had given orders weeks ago that access to Tejana was to be strictly controlled. The Jones family were not allowed anywhere near her.

"No, give it to me. I'll take it in," he replied, reaching for the tray.

Tish refused to surrender it, gripping the edges with unexpected strength. "Open the door," she insisted, her sweet voice suddenly like gravel.

Peter stared at her in astonishment, dark suspicion stirring in his mind. "Have you gone insane, girl? You know the rules. You're forbidden to see her."

With a rasping snarl, Tish reared back and threw the tray to one side, the dishes clattering and rolling across the floor. Her eyes flared, the dark brown irises transforming into a satanic yellow, the pupils elongated and vertical. As he watched, horrified, a complex pattern coiled along her skin, luminous and silver.

"_FOOL_!" she ground out, her voice deep and inhuman. "_OPEN THE DOOR_!"

Peter snatched his automatic pistol from its holster and trained it on her. "What the hell _are_ you ?"

Tish threw back her head and laughed. "_I AM HUNGER. I AM THIRST. I AM WAR. I AM __DEATH. I AM THE DESTRUCTION OF ALL MANKIND. DO NOT SEEK TO DENY ME, LITTLE MAN, FOR I AM LEGION!_"

"Sorry," Peter said stoically, knowing he was probably about to die. "But that's my job."

Raising his gun, he fired at her until the ammunition clip was empty. The creature that had once been Letitia Jones didn't even flinch. A network of electrical energy crackled to life in the air around her, shielding her from the oncoming bullets, deflecting them harmlessly away. Before the bodyguard could move, the monster reached out and seized his head in an unbreakable grip. For one infinitesimal second, Peter saw again the beloved images of his wife and daughter, reaching their arms lovingly towards him. Then blazing agony ripped through his brain like a scythe and death claimed him for its own.

Tossing his limp body aside, Tish turned and stepped towards the door of Tejana's suite, her yellow eyes alight with purpose.


	13. Chapter 13

_**Author's Note: **_

_**Merry Christmas everyone! I'd just like to thank everyone who has given me the gift of their reviews for any of my stories this year, I appreciate each and every one! More specifically, for the previous chapter, I'd like to thank the following reviewers: Catelly, GallifreanGirl, Omniac, KlinicallyInsaneKoschei (lovely to hear from you again, yay!), OhTex, MayFairy, tardisandafirebolt, Lost Moon, iLuvTwiboyz, Guessswho, Jiwa, Aietradaea and Beautiful Rogue – your reviews make such lovely Christmas presents!**_

_**Also, big wave for Seileach, my new reviewer – so happy to have you on board!**_

_**And, thanks to Catelly for your PMs, so nice to have a chat to you (I always love a chat)!**_

_**Now, this chapter is a bit of a long one – sorry about that, but at least I won't feel guilty if I don't write anything over the Christmas break now. **_

_**The relationship between the Master and Tejana hits rock bottom in this one. I blame Evanescence for this chapter, since I was listening to "My Immortal" when I wrote it - "These wounds won't seem to heal, this pain is just too real, there's just too much that Time cannot erase..."**_

_**Still, they say the night is always darkest before the dawn...hope you enjoy the chapter! **_

_**

* * *

**_**CHAPTER THIRTEEN**

**- _The Valiant, _Christmas Eve, 2008 - **

Damon grimaced with agony, biting his lip to stop himself from crying out in pain as he made his way hurriedly along the passageway.

_God, who knew broken ribs could hurt so much?_

He knew he had been lucky. The Master's moods were notoriously capricious – he could quite easily have had Damon killed. Instead, his injuries, while excruciatingly painful, were largely superficial. Multiple contusions, a broken nose, a fractured left arm and three cracked ribs. They had patched him up down in the Medical Bay, re-setting his nose and his arm and dosing him with a large handful of pain-killers. He had no idea what he looked like, but from the horrified glances he was receiving as he passed people in the corridors, he guessed it was something similar to the Creature from the Black Lagoon. In actual fact, he was still supposed to be confined to bed, but he had managed to slip away while the nurse wasn't looking.

He had to see Tejana. It was all he could think about, the thought pounding over and over in his brain. He knew it was completely crazy, since she was the sole reason he had ended up in this debilitated state. Anyone with any sense would learn their lesson and keep a professional distance from her from now on. But he couldn't help himself. Something was very wrong. He couldn't explain it, but he could feel it, nagging at the edges of his mind. Even as he thought about it, the elusive whispering in his head seemed to grow more and more urgent. She was in danger. She was in danger _right now_.

Ignoring the savage pain wracking his body, he broke into a tortuous, shambling sprint, running for the elevator. Diving inside, he hammered at the controls with his good hand.

"Come on! COME ON!"

At last, the lift began to rise, carrying him in gradual increments to the upper regions of the ship. As he came closer and closer to Tejana's floor, he heard the unmistakable sound of gun-fire echoing sharply down the lift-shaft. Damon cursed wildly, impatience and adrenaline surging through his veins, the seconds seeming to drag by like hours until eventually the slow-moving lift came to a stop. The doors finally slid open and he burst out into the corridor, his gun held at the ready. Further up the corridor, directly in front of Tejana's door, he saw a small, slight figure dressed in a maid's uniform. At her feet lay an unmoving body dressed in the black of the Master's guard. _Peter. Oh god no, not Peter!_

The maid looked around at him, her face curiously impassive, her dark eyes fixed on him in an unfaltering stare.

"What the hell happened?" he gasped, recognising her as Tish Jones, one of the Master's other prisoners. He could see the shattered remains of what appeared to have been a tray of food littering the ground behind her. "Is Tejana OK?"

Eerily, Tish didn't answer. Instead, she began to walk steadily towards him, the broken plates crunching loudly under her shoes. A cold feeling of unease coiled low in Damon's stomach. For just a second, he thought he saw a gleam of yellow deep in the depths of her eyes.

Just before she reached him, there was a flash of bright light and two Toclafane materialised nearby with a low humming sound.

"A weapon has been discharged," the male Toclafane intoned.

"The firing of weapons is not permitted aboard my Master's ship," the female added spitefully.

Then, in unison, "Explain."

Tish halted, turning to glance briefly at the pair of bobbing cyborgs. When she swung back to Damon, he saw her face was wet with tears, her eyes now as dark as rich chocolate.

"I don't know what happened...he just went crazy. I brought this tray up for Tejana and all of a sudden he started firing at thin air," she said hysterically. "I was so scared. I thought he was going to kill me! Then he just fell down. I think...I think he's dead!"

Damon frowned, studying her distraught expression. All at once she looked so small, so fragile, so frightened. He knew he should be feeling sympathy, a masculine urge to comfort and reassure her. But somehow, his sense of disquiet still persisted.

At that moment, there was a loud banging from the other side of Tejana's door. "Hello? Peter, are you there? Anyone? I heard a gun!"

"Tejana!" Damon called, breathing a sigh of relief that she was all right. "It's Damon. Everything's fine."

"Damon?" she shouted through the door. "What's going on? Who was shooting? Where's Peter?"

The young bodyguard rubbed tiredly at his temples, the pain in his body beginning to return with a vengeance now his adrenalin rush was receding. "Just hang tight for a bit," he instructed. "I'll be in to see you soon."

For some reason, he didn't want to open Tejana's door while Tish Jones was there. The whispering voices in his head had receded again, but he couldn't shake the ominous feeling that something horrible had just been averted. His eyes fell dully on Peter's lifeless body, grief lancing through his heart. Averted, maybe, but not in time to save Peter. The silent man had been his friend, his mentor, his father figure, ever since he had joined the guard on board the newly-commissioned _Valiant. _Now he was dead, lying in a twisted heap on the ground, his eyes wide and staring, bereft of the dignity which had been such a part of him in life. What the hell had happened to him? Had he really gone mad, as the Jones girl suggested? Knowing Peter as he did, it just didn't seem possible. Despite the tremendous pain of his cracked ribs, Damon crouched sorrowfully beside Peter's body. Reaching out his hand, he gently closed his friend's eyes, silently praying that he had found some peace at last.

Then, glancing up at Tish, he said tersely, "Miss Jones, you're in shock. You need to go to the Medical Bay immediately please. I'll arrange for someone to come and take your statement about what happened shortly."

He half expected the girl to argue, but instead she gave a brief nod and turned on her heel, disappearing obediently into the lift. Damon watched her go, his eyes narrowed suspiciously. Was he imagining it, or was there something..._wooden_...about her movements, something stiff and unnatural?

"You are a bodyguard," the female Toclafane spoke up sharply, as the lift doors closed. "It is your job to protect my Master's pretty lady. My Master would not like guns being fired at his lady's door."

"Oooh, yes, let's tell our Master," the male sphere chimed in nastily. "Then the man will be punished! Punished and hurt and killed! That will be _fun_!"

Laughing gleefully like evil children, they de-materialised again, leaving Damon alone with Peter's body. Wearily, he got to his feet, bracing himself against the wall. He knew he should use his communicator to report the situation to Security Chief Anderson. But right now, he couldn't bring himself to speak to the pompous little man. After all, he thought sadly, there was no hurry. Peter wasn't going anywhere. Instead, he used his electronic key and opened the door to Tejana's room.

Tense and anxious, she hastened forward to meet him. "Oh, Damon, I thought..." she began, before breaking off in shock as she saw his battered features and the sling supporting his fractured arm. Her face blanched, the blue eyes filling with an awful mixture of horror and guilt as she immediately guessed what had happened. "Oh gods, _he_ did that, didn't he? Because of the snow-ball fight?"

Damon tried to smile reassuringly, but it wasn't easy when his lips were so split and swollen. "It looks worse than what it is," he lied.

She shook her head numbly, her voice suddenly shaky. "Oh, Damon, I don't know what to say. I'm sorry, so very sorry. It was all my fault."

"What about you?" Damon demanded, hot anger sparking in the depths of his dark eyes as he reached out his hand to gently touch the bandage on her head. "Did he do this to you?"

Alarmed by the fierce expression on his face, she said hurriedly, "No, it wasn't the Master. It was Lucy Saxon. We had...an altercation."

"What?" he exclaimed.

"It's OK, really...Peter sorted it out," she told him. "But where is Peter? What was that gunfire all about?"

Damon's hand dropped back to his side, the grief crowding in on him again. "Peter's dead, Tejana. I think someone...or something...killed him."

Her steady gaze was sympathetic, but still compelling. "Tell me what happened, Damon," she said softly. "And don't miss anything out."

So, reluctantly, he explained the few facts that he knew. He was aware that he had very little concrete reasoning to doubt Tish's account. It was more of a feeling, a foreboding, certainly nothing he would be prepared to put in his report to Security Chief Anderson. But something told him that Tejana would understand exactly what he meant and she didn't disappoint him. She listened carefully to everything he had to say, a tiny frown of concentration etched between her brows.

"Tish Jones?" she asked worriedly. "Not Lucy?"

He shook his head, a bit confused. "Not Lucy. She was nowhere near Peter that I saw."

"This just keeps getting weirder," she muttered, beginning to pace up and down, unconsciously mimicking her father's habit of walking about while he was thinking.

"Yeah. And it's not as though Peter's the first, either."

She whirled around sharply. "What do you mean, not the first?"

"There've been seven others who just dropped dead for no apparent reason," he shrugged. "No witnesses to those, though."

"Seven! Oh, stars, it's even worse than I thought. Hasn't anyone told the Master about this?"

The young bodyguard grimaced, trying to ease the pressure on his broken ribs as he took a deep breath. "Security Chief Anderson tried. The Master wouldn't listen."

"Oh yeah, he's been good at that lately," she said bitterly. "Damon, I need to see Peter's body."

He hesitated uncertainly. Theoretically, Tejana was still a prisoner in his charge. He was not supposed to permit her to set foot outside this room without explicit instructions from the Master. What if she was out in the corridor and the Toclafane came back? Or, even worse, what if the Master himself turned up?

"Please, Damon," she insisted, her troubled gaze fixed on his face. "This could be really important."

"All right," he capitulated. "But make it quick."

Hastily, she followed him out the door. Standing back, he allowed her to kneel down beside his friend's remains. To his immense surprise, a familiar gold and silver rod appeared like magic in her hand. Methodically, she waved it over Peter's body, listening intently to the low beeping sound emitting from the device.

"What are you doing?" Damon demanded in alarm.

"Scanning him."

"But...that's the Master's laser screwdriver!"

Tejana sighed audibly. "No, it's not. It's similar to his, but this one's mine." She slanted an oblique glance up at Damon, as if gauging his reaction. "He made it for me."

Damon nodded slowly, the information confirming what he had already guessed. "You're not just his prisoner, are you? There's more between you than that."

"A lot more," Tejana acknowledged ruefully. "It's kind of complicated."

Without elaborating further, she turned back to Peter and completed the scan. "All the electro-magnetic energy in his body has been drained."

"What does that mean?"

"All over the human body, cells use electricity to communicate and to stimulate muscles, especially the neurons in the brain. Obviously, when a person dies, the electrical impulses cease to function. But according to my scan, the electrical energy in Peter's brain was drained _before_ he died. The sudden loss of energy was actually what killed him."

Damon stared at her. "Drained by _what_?"

Tejana lifted her head, her eyes preoccupied and unseeing. When she spoke, she seemed to be talking more to herself than to her companion. "I don't know. But this didn't happen before, during The Year That Never Was. And the only variable that's different is the Master's temporal displacement. Whatever this thing is, it must have come through the Rift with us."

Before the young bodyguard could ask any of the hundreds of questions teeming on the tip of his tongue, her gaze snapped back into focus. "Damon, I'm going to need your help. With the Master being so stubborn, the only other person I can turn to is my father. I have to see him."

"I...I can't..." Damon stammered.

"I know I'm asking a lot, especially after what the Master did to you because of me," Tejana said gravely. "But I believe everyone on this ship is in extreme danger and the Doctor is the only one who can help."

Damon swallowed hard. The voices were whispering again, far, far away. _Tejana_..._the Doctor...Tejana...the Doctor...Tejana...the Doctor. _The names wove in curliques through his brain, like evanescent zephyrs of smoke, half-remembered and intangible. Without stopping to think any further, he made a snap decision. Activating his ear-piece communicator, he asked Central Security for the Doctor's current location.

"He's in his cell," he informed Tejana shortly. "But I don't know how you expect me to get you down there without someone seeing you."

Tejana smiled mischeviously and produced a small item on a long chain from her pocket. "Perception filter. The Master didn't even think to take it from me. I guess he forgot I had it. With this on, nobody will even notice me."

As she spoke, she slipped the chain over her head, her eyes gleaming triumphantly, as if she had just pulled off a particularly difficult conjuring trick. "See?"

Damon blinked, considering her in bewilderment. She was obviously expecting some sort of response. "Um...is something supposed to have changed?"

Tejana's face fell almost comically. "What? You didn't notice anything?" Using the laser screwdriver, she quickly scanned the tiny gadget around her neck. "According to this, it's working perfectly!"

Before he could protest, she turned the screwdriver on him, running it over him from top to toe. He flinched away, gritting his teeth as the involuntary movement sent darts of pain shooting through his chest from his injuries. He was far too accustomed to the destructive nature of the Master's laser screwdriver to appreciate having one pointed at him at such close range.

"What are you doing?"

"Just checking to see if you have an extra telepathic synapse in your brain, like a Time Lord. That would negate the effect of the perception filter. Sometimes a rare human is born with one," Tejana said thoughtfully. "But not you. There's nothing unusual about your physiology at all."

"Thanks, I think," he answered dryly.

Tejana's soft lips tightened in determination. "It doesn't matter. The scanner says the filter is operational. We'll just have to assume you're some kind of anomaly and take the risk. Come on, let's go."

* * *

**- The Doctor's Cell, _The Valiant_, Christmas Eve, 2008 -**

Tejana and Damon paused outside the Doctor's cell, relaxing in relief as they realised they had traversed the entire height and length of the ship without being caught.

"I don't believe it!" the young guard exclaimed. "We made it. That filter thing must really work after all. No-one even seemed to notice you."

"What did I tell you? You're an anomaly!" Tejana smiled teasingly, trying to pretend she had known all along how it would go. In actual fact, her relief was just as great as his.

"I've been called worse!" he admitted with an answering grin.

"Thank you, Damon," she said fervently. "I mean it, you've been great. But now you need to get out of here. If the Master catches you down here with me, he won't hesitate to kill you this time."

Damon paused in concern. "And you? What happens if he catches you?"

"He won't hurt me," Tejana replied, more confidently than she actually felt. Not so long ago, she would have staked her life on the unwavering belief that the Master would never harm her. Now, she wasn't so sure. "Really, it's OK. Now _go_."

Gently, he reached out and touched her cheek, caressing her soft skin with his fingertips, his dark eyes anxious. "Be careful, Tejana," he warned, before disappearing up the corridor.

Adjusting the settings on the laser screwdriver, she skimmed the device over the electronic panel lock outside her father's cell. It gave a loud click and the door slid smoothly open.

"Oh yes!" she whispered. "Score one for the good guys!"

Inside, the Doctor was sitting on the edge of his narrow bunk, his elderly frame hunched over, huddled inside his tattered brown suit jacket. He glanced up when he heard the door open, his ancient and sunken eyes widening in stunned surprise as he saw his daughter slipping cautiously inside the room, sliding the door closed behind her.

"Tejana!" he cried joyfully.

She threw herself across the room into his waiting embrace. "Doctor!"

For a moment it was enough just to cling tightly together, each simply happy to know the other was safe. Then the Doctor pulled back and looked closely at her. "Are you all right?" he rasped, his voice quavering and breathless with age. "What...happened to your head? Did the...Master do that?"

"No, it wasn't him," Tejana replied, wondering if she should get a T-shirt printed with that message on it, since everyone was continually jumping to the wrong conclusion. The Master had a bad enough track record, without adding things he hadn't done to the list. "It's kind of a long story."

"There's been...rumours all over the ship..." the Doctor said hoarsely. "They say he's been...hurting you...forcing you..."

She cut in abruptly, seeing the worry in his crinkled face. "No, that's not true. He hasn't forced me to do anything, I promise."

The Doctor continued to regard her steadily, before finally appearing satisfied that she was telling the truth. "I...worked out...your message. You and the Master...you're from the future. He's come back...to change things."

"Yes. It's a Reciprocal Temporal Displacement, using energy from the Cardiff Rift," she explained quickly. "The Tejana and the Master from this time-line are in the future, maintaining the balance of the causal nexus."

"I...always said...he was brilliant," the Doctor remarked wryly. "But...why did he...bring you back too? There...must have been a reason."

Tejana shifted uncomfortably. Here it was, the moment she had been dreading, telling her father about her relationship with the Master. In her time-line, she had managed to avoid it, taking the easy way out by running away with the other Time Lord. That had been bad enough, feeling the sharp sting of the Doctor's outrage through the psychic link when he found out. But this time there was no getting out of it. This time she had to tell him face to face.

"I...um..." she began falteringly, not quite sure how to say it. "Things are a bit...different, in the future. That is...um...the Master and I...we're together."

"Together?" the Doctor echoed obliviously. "You mean...when the temporal displacement...took place? I gathered that. But...why? Was he...holding you hostage?"

Tejana sighed, rubbing distractedly at the bridge of her nose. He obviously wasn't going to make this easy for her.

"Not just together in the same place. I mean, _together_ together."

The Doctor looked at her blankly. He clearly still had no idea what she meant. His daughter rolled her eyes in frustration. _Stars, for a such a genius, he could be so bloody THICK sometimes!_

"Oh, for Gallifrey's sake, do I have to spell it out?" she exclaimed crossly. "We're in a relationship! A couple! Lovers! _That's_ why he brought me back with him, OK?"

"_Lovers_!" The Doctor nearly choked. Literally. He went an alarming shade of red and began to suck in huge gasps of air, his breath wheezing and rattling in his throat. Distressed at the effect of her revelation, Tejana patted him as hard as she dared between his fragile old shoulder-blades, trying to free up his airway.

"Doctor? Doctor, are you all right?"

"You...you and _the Master_?" he gasped incredulously, forcing the words past the constriction of his chest.

"Like I said, things are different in the future. A lot happens!" she answered, her tone defensive. "Anyway, that's not important. What's important is..."

"Not important! _NOT IMPORTANT!_" the Doctor bit out. "My daughter..._my daughter_...waltzes in here and tells me she's sleeping with the Master _by choice _and she tells me it's _not important_!"

For a worrying moment, Tejana thought his head was about to explode, his eyes bulging with fury. This really wasn't going well. At this rate he was going to have some kind of seizure. Desperately, she tried to refocus the conversation.

"I'm trying to tell you..."

"What? That you're _helping_ him take over the Universe now?" he interrupted, so vehemently that he broke into a paroxysm of coughing.

"Look, I had nothing to do with the temporal displacement, if that's what you mean. I'm his prisoner here as much as anyone, that's what the psi-bracelet is all about," Tejana shot back, starting to get angry. "And trust me, on the list of Things I Most Want to Do, having an in-depth discussion of my sex life with my father isn't exactly up there. Nothing would please me more than to get back to my own time-line. But there's something else going on, something bad." Fumbling in her pocket, she extracted the laser screwdriver and held it out to him. "You need to look at these readings."

The Doctor stared at the slim gold and silver rod as if she was trying to hand him a poisonous snake. "A laser screwdriver!" he muttered in disbelief. "My daughter has a laser screwdriver."

Tejana finally saw red. "Would you please _listen_?" she snapped angrily. "Ooooh, you're just as bad as he is! The most annoying thing about you two is that you're both so alike, if you'd only admit it! Read my lips! THERE IS SOMETHING ELSE ON BOARD THIS SHIP WITH US AND IT'S KILLING PEOPLE!"

At last she seemed to have his undivided attention. "_What?_"

"It must have come through the Rift with us. It seems to be some kind of parasite. I think it's using Lucy Saxon as its host body. It's killed at least eight people already," Tejana told him. "This is a scan of the latest victim."

Rapidly, the Doctor absorbed the information contained in the screwdriver. "Electro-magnetic energy. A parasitic creature that feeds on electro-magnetic energy. Why does that sound so familiar?"

"You've come across it before?" Tejana wasn't surprised. There wasn't much in the Universe the Doctor hadn't come across at some point in his vagabond life.

"I don't know," he responded in a troubled voice. "The Master's Lazarus technology...has slowed my brain right down along with my body. It's ringing a...faint bell...in there somewhere, but I can't quite..."

Then his eyes flicked up to meet hers. "If this parasite is trying to take over the Master's ship, why isn't he doing something about it?"

Tejana looked away, her face taut with pain. "He won't listen. He's so focused on getting what he wants, right now nothing else matters to him."

"Universal domination?" the Doctor queried dryly. "Again?"

"Among other things," she replied, her mind wandering once more to the beautiful child in the Could-Have-Been-King's vision.

Seeing the sadness in her face, the Doctor reached for her hand, all his anger suddenly gone. "Tejana, this...relationship...with the Master...are you sure it's real? I mean, I always thought that you and Jack..."

She stared down at the liver-spotted old hand holding hers and then met his steady brown gaze with her own. Seeing the love and concern that shone for her there, her eyes glistened with unshed tears.

"It's real. Right now, I wish it wasn't, but it is," she said, the truth aching through her voice. "I love him. There is no-one else for me. I don't think there ever will be."

The Doctor gave a deep sigh. "We have to find a way to stop them both, Tejana. Not just this parasite monster, but the Master as well," he told her gently, tightening his grip on her hand. "I really need to know that we're on the same page with this."

"I won't let you hurt him."

"You know that's the last thing I want to do."

She hesitated but then slowly nodded her agreement. "Then we're on the same page."

Even as she spoke, the door to the cell slid abruptly back, making them both jump. "You may be on the same page," an icy new voice cut in. "But the book belongs to me."

Looking up in shock, Tejana realised that the Master was standing in the doorway watching them. And he was angry - _very _angry - she could see it in his eyes.

"Very clever, Ana," he said bitterly, indicating the laser screwdriver in her hand. "But did you really think I wouldn't miss it?"

Striding forward, he seized her wrist in a bruising grip, twisting it roughly until, with a gasp of pain, she was forced to drop the screwdriver on the floor. The Doctor started forward as if to intervene, but the black-clad guards accompanying the other Time Lord immediately levelled their weapons at him threateningly.

Furiously, holding her gaze with his own, the Master lifted his foot and deliberately ground it down on the screwdriver, shattering it into tiny pieces. Tejana flinched, tears springing to her eyes as she saw the gift he had given her crushed into nothingness under his shoe. Somehow it seemed achingly symbolic of the destruction of their relationship. Without another word, the Master took her by the upper arm and began to haul her towards the door.

"Leave her alone!" the Doctor shouted. "Don't hurt her."

But the Master ignored him as if he wasn't even there, closing the door emphatically behind them. Forcibly, he dragged Tejana back along the corridors to the luxurious rooms which formed her prison. She didn't bother to try and resist. There was no point. Once they reached her suite, the Master gestured at the guards to stay outside. Man-handling her inside, he threw her roughly on the bed. Then he methodically removed his jacket and tie, before efficiently beginning to undo the buttons on his pristine white shirt.

"What are you doing?" she demanded, keeping her tone as cold as possible, despite her growing apprehension.

"What does it look like?" he growled. "Plotting and planning with the Doctor...I think you need reminding who you belong to."

Tejana jumped to her feet facing him, her fists clenched in overwhelming rage. "Oh no, you're not! Don't even _think _about touching me!"

"I'm your _Master_! I can do whatever I want with you!" he snapped. His eyes swept her up and down, hot with fury and desire. "And you know you'll love every second, you always do."

White-hot humiliation flooded through her veins and she lost her temper completely. Drawing back her hand, she prepared to slap him again. But this time, he saw it coming and deftly caught her wrist before she could land the blow.

"Uh-uh, sweetheart! Once was more than enough!" he snarled. "And just for that, now I'm going to make you beg for it."

With a powerful shove, he pushed her back on the bed, his full weight coming down on top of her and pinning her so she couldn't move. Then his mouth descended on hers in a punishing kiss, brutally taking what he wanted without giving anything back. Tejana froze, her slender form taut and hostile, silently resisting him. For the first time since they had lain together in The Matrix, she felt no desire when he touched her. All she felt for him was fear and loathing, the memories of her imprisonment and abuse on Gallifrey drowning her in a suffocating wave.

Sensing her lack of response, he raised his head and looked down at her, his breathing heavy, his brown eyes glazed with lust, his hands ruthlessly pinioning her wrists in a crushing grip.

"You once told me never to compare you to Councillor Rohan," she hissed viciously into his face. "Yet here you are, holding me prisoner and taking me by force. Tell me exactly how you're any different to him?"

The effect of her words could not have been more dramatic. The Master looked as if she had stabbed him with a knife, his body going rigid with shock as he suddenly saw what he was doing through her eyes. Releasing her abruptly, he got to his feet and began backing away, anguished realisation crawling across his face. Somehow, caught up in the maelstrom of pain and anger roiling between them, he had unwittingly become the very thing he had once so vehemently condemned. Leaving her sprawled across the bed, he snatched up his jacket and tie and almost ran for the door.

"I would have given you everything I have, freely and willingly, Koschei," she said in a low, broken voice. "Why must you always think things have no value unless you take them by force?"

For a moment he paused and looked back over his shoulder at her, torment wracking his features. Then he was gone and she was alone. She knew she should feel relieved that he had stopped. But instead, all she felt was extreme unhappiness. _How could something which had been so beautiful between them become so corrupted and vile?_ Shaking like a leaf, she ran to the bathroom, where she vomited and vomited from bitter revulsion until there was nothing left in her stomach.

* * *

**- Gwen and Tosh's Cell, _The Valiant_, Christmas Eve, 2008 -**

Francine Jones stood outside the cell containing Gwen Cooper and Toshiko Sato. Her eyes gleamed yellow in the dim lights of the corridor. Raising her hand to the panel-lock, she gave a quick blast of electrical energy. Obediently, the door slid open.

And deep down in the bowels of _The Valiant, _nobody heard Gwen and Tosh scream.


	14. Chapter 14

**_Author's Note: Hey all! Hope everyone had a great Christmas and wishing you all a safe and happy New Year!_**

**_Thanks to the following people for reviewing the last chapter: MayFairy, Catelly, GallifreanGirl, iLuvTwiBoyz, Lost Moon, tardisandafirebolt, Omniac, babybluepineapple, Jiwa, OhTex and Aietradaea. _**

**_Also a massive wave for my new reviewer, RiverBleu - so happy to have you on board and I hope you will continue to review._**

**_One of the best things about being a writer is being able to make your reader feel something - so the most amazing gift any of my readers can ever give me is your opinion of my story in the form of a review, especially the bits that stand out to you. It all helps me improve, so thank you all._**

**_I truly struggled to write this chapter (hence the slight delay in posting), but I am sick of mulling over it, so here it is, for better or for worse (fingers crossed!)  
_**

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* * *

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**CHAPTER FOURTEEN**

**- Tejana's Suite, _The Valiant, _****Christmas Day, 2008_ -_**

Everything was grey. Knife grey, cold and soulless, the world leached of light and colour. _The Valiant _sailed majestically on, through the storm-hued skies of planet Earth, the leaden clouds swirling beneath her like a never-ending vaporous ocean.

Tejana stared out across the shifting sea of cloud, watching the insubstantial mist drift into peaks and troughs, lapping at the sides of the ship in wintry, brume-cloaked waves.

Down below, she knew it was raining. She had always loved the rain. As a child of the Citadel, growing up confined in the sterile, enclosed, unchanging environment of the Dome, all forms of weather had been an enchanting novelty. But the rain had always seemed special. She could remember standing at the perimeter of the Dome as a tiny child, watching the huge fat drops splashing down across the surface of the transparent bubble, wishing she could feel them falling on her face, just once. The rain always seemed to bring a fresh start, washing away all the accumulated dirt and grime, leaving everything sparkling and clean and new.

But not this rain. In her mind's eye, she visualised it falling to the Earth, pooling and running like tears of sorrow, sliding in glistening streaks down the smooth, white casing of the Master's rockets as they lined up in their thousands, waiting for war.

_Christmas Day 2008._ Almost six months to the day since the human race had been entranced by Harold Saxon's charming smile - believing his promises of a fresh start, a brand new day - and had taken his outstretched hand, following him unsuspectingly into the dark. And how could Tejana blame them? After all, she had done exactly the same thing.

_But there was no fresh start, _she thought bitterly. _No brand new day, not for any of us. Just the endless grey cloud of misery and despair._

Her hand drifted to her right ankle, her fingers tracing the ridges of the burn cauterised into her skin, the outline of his hand branding her as his forever. _The Mark of the Master. _She had always sworn that he would never break her. And he never had. Throughout all the centuries he had battled with the Doctor, throughout all the terrible things he had done, all the things he had put them through – fear, imprisonment, physical pain and deprivation, mental abuse and torture – and she had stayed strong and defiant. But this time it was different. Because this time he had been in possession of one devastating weapon he had never had before. This time, because she loved him, he had finally managed to crush and shatter her deep inside.

Behind her, the door slid open and Damon stepped into the room, carrying a large white box under his good arm.

"Tejana!" he said urgently, seeing her huddled on the couch. "Are you all right? Did you see the Doctor? What happened?"

"I'm fine," she replied, her tone flat and dull. "Yeah, I saw him. I told him everything. But then the Master caught us, so we didn't get much of a chance to talk it through."

"He caught you!" Damon exclaimed in alarm, hurrying forward. "He didn't hurt you?"

Tejana gave a small, harsh laugh. "No, he didn't hurt me. Not the way you mean, anyway."

Disturbed by the bleak, empty look on her face, the young guard came and sat beside her. Hesitantly, he reached for her hand in an awkward gesture of comfort, not quite sure what to say. "Come on, cheer up. It's Christmas. There's always hope at Christmas!"

She shook her head, her eyes shadowed with bitterness. "You're as bad as the Doctor. He's always loved human Christmas. Some of the worst things in his life have happened to him on Christmas Day, but still he insists on seeing it as a time to celebrate. He says it's because, when you reach Christmas, you know you're halfway out of the dark."

"Halfway out of the dark," Damon echoed thoughtfully. "I like that."

"That's all very well...but what if the dark just keeps on going? What if there _is _no end to it all, no dawn on the horizon?"

He squeezed her hand gently, a rueful smile twinkling in his dark gaze. "The dawn is never completely lost, Tejana. Sometimes it's just a little bit slower in coming than we'd like."

For a moment, she just looked at him, her expression sceptical. But then she reluctantly returned his smile. "You and my father would get on pretty well, I think. That's just the sort of thing he would say."

Damon gave her a wink, holding a single finger up as if instructing her to wait a moment. Scrabbling in his pocket, he produced a tiny sprig of greenery with smooth-edged, oval leaves and a cluster of waxy white berries.

"Ta dah!" With that, he held the sprig over her head.

Tejana looked up in surprise. "Mistletoe! But how did you...?"

"I found it growing down in that forest in Switzerland!" Damon responded blithely. "Couldn't let it go to waste. Merry Christmas, Tejana! And here's to being halfway out of the dark!"

Leaning forward, he planted a brotherly, affectionate kiss on her cheek with a loud, ridiculous smacking sound. Despite the ache in her hearts, she couldn't help giving a smothered snort of laughter at his clowning. "Are you _always_ this revoltingly cheerful in the face of alien occupation, invasion by an energy-sucking parasite from another dimension and imminent war with the rest of the Universe?"

"I do my best," he said virtuously.

"And what's in the box? Don't tell me you found an opportunity to go Christmas shopping as well?"

"Ah, that..." he replied, suddenly serious, his eyes sliding to the rectangular, white box sitting beside him on the couch. "That's not from me. That's from him. He's given orders that you're to join him on the flight deck in an hour. Wearing that."

The smile dropped away from Tejana's face. Pulling the box toward her, she lifted off the lid. Inside, she saw the dull gleam of midnight blue satin.

"It's a dress," she said curtly. "And a pair of matching shoes."

Tejana didn't like dresses much at the best of times. They always reminded her too much of the formal, flowing robes she had been forced to wear growing up on Gallifrey. As a result, she was very rarely to be found wearing a dress of any sort, much preferring a comfortable pair of jeans and a casual top. A vision of Lucy Saxon rose before her eyes, dressed in her revealing evening gowns, her charms blatantly displayed like some sort of suggestive sexual trophy. Tejana shuddered. Was that what the Master wanted from her now? Was that to be her punishment for the heart-wrenching scene from the night before, a public attempt to cheapen and demean her?

Swallowing hard, she lifted out the dress, only to realise that it was neither cheap nor demeaning. Even more surprisingly, it wasn't even new. Tejana recognised it easily. She had bought it herself from a London shop. It was the dress she had worn to the reception at Lazarus Laboratories, when Richard Lazarus had demonstrated his anti-aging machine to the world. Frowning in bewilderment, she inspected the right hand seam of the shimmering blue sheathe. Sure enough, although it had been exquisitely mended, she could still see the jagged tear she had made in the fine fabric when she had needed to free her legs from the constriction of the tight skirt to run back into the Lazarus buildings to help the Doctor. Once the emergency was all over, she had carelessly thrown the ruined gown into the wardrobe in her room in the Doctor's TARDIS, together with the matching high-heeled shoes, and hadn't given it another thought. For some bizarre reason, the Master had obviously retrieved it and arranged for it to be repaired. _But why?_ _What possible significance could this particular dress have for him?_

She knew she had no choice except to put it on, as he had ordered. Tejana had never seen him as angry as he had been last night. Even though she had managed to stop him, she had no doubt there would still be repercussions. Whatever this was, whatever the latest little scheme he had fermenting in his twisted brain, it was best just to do as he said and get it over with. Damon's bruised and battered face was a constant, guilty reminder to her of the lengths the Master would go to when he was angry. Right now, obedience to his will was the only way to minimise the danger to everyone else around her.

"I'd better put it on then," she said, keeping her voice even with an effort. "Wouldn't want to keep him waiting."

Moving into the bathroom, she took off the comfortable, white robe and began to shimmy into the blue dress. Thanks to her recent weight loss, it was a lot looser on her than she remembered. However, it still fitted tolerably well, the soft material hugging her curves and flowing elegantly from her waist to the floor. She slipped on the high-heeled shoes and stared at herself in the mirror. The midnight colour of the dress accentuated the dark blue of her eyes, making them seem even larger in her pale face. Knowing the Master loved to see her long, curly hair loose, she pulled it back severely and pinned it into a tight twist at the back of her head. It was a ridiculous, pointless little act of defiance, but somehow it still made her feel better.

Then, carefully, she removed the bandage Owen had placed over her head wound. Underneath, the gash was nearly healed, but was still very visible, an angry red line marring the smooth skin of her forehead. Tejana sighed deeply. Time Lords tended to heal very, very quickly, it was a unique part of their physiology. But lately, it had been taking longer and longer for her injuries to repair themselves. She knew what it meant. The levels of artron energy in her body were depleting. It had been a long time since she had regenerated, back when she had fallen into E-Space during the Time War, her old body fatally crippled and burnt in the fierce battle against the Daleks, the dimensional barriers tearing at her flesh in excruciating pain as she fell, every cell within her already beginning to transform. The Doctor had changed his face three times since then. And although she had never been as profligate with her regenerations as her father, she could not help but recognise that her current body was wearing thin. Like it or not, the time for change was rapidly approaching. Slowly, she raised her hand to her face, tracing the familiar features with her fingertips, like a blind person reading a book in Braille. She wondered what her new face would look like. Regeneration was always a bit of a lottery. You were never quite sure what you would end up with. She gave her reflection a wry smile. Perhaps she would regenerate into something so ugly that the Master wouldn't want her any more. The ways matters stood between them right now, she was unable to decide whether that would be a good thing or a bad thing.

Taking a steadying breath, she stepped back out into the main room of the suite. Damon turned around, his eyes widening as he saw her, his lips pursed in a soundless wolf whistle.

"Whoa, you've got to give the Master credit, he's got good taste!" he exclaimed approvingly.

"Oh no, he doesn't," she snapped. "I actually chose this dress myself, he had nothing to do with it."

Damon shook his head with an impish grin. "I wasn't talking about the dress!"

A faint hint of colour tinged her cheeks. "_Now_ you're starting to sound like my friend Jack!" she told him, rolling her eyes.

"You'll have to introduce us sometime, maybe he could give me some pointers."

"Believe me, Damon, if you ever met Jack, I wouldn't need to introduce you," she said dryly. "He's more than capable of introducing himself. Come on then, let's go get this over with."

* * *

**- The Flight Deck, _The Valiant, _Christmas Day, 2008 -**

Tejana and Damon didn't see a single soul as they made their way down to the flight deck. The huge ship seemed oddly still, like a great, slumbering beast. Tejana couldn't help feeling an uneasy quiver in her stomach. _Where was everyone_?

Her question was soon to be answered. As the door to the flight deck slid open, she instinctively recoiled in shock. The room was crowded to capacity. The conference table had been removed and every _Valiant _staff member, all several hundred of them, from the lowest kitchen hand to Security Chief Anderson himself, lined the walls, their eyes fixed on her as she stood in the doorway. Tejana could see the Doctor in his wheelchair, Jack, Martha, the other members of the Jones family, as well as the entire Torchwood team. From what she could tell, the only person missing was Lucy. A narrow pathway had been left through the crowd, leading directly to the Bridge stairs. And there the Master stood, handsome in his dark suit, his pale blonde hair gleaming under the lights, his face impassive as he looked at her, his arms folded. The room was completely silent, the air layered with a sense of ominous anticipation.

Tejana raised her chin and looked the Master proudly in the eye across the length of the room, refusing to be intimidated. He had always loved an audience, yet another thing about him that hadn't changed. Slowly, without breaking the eye contact, she began to walk towards him, the clack of her high heels echoing on the polished floor. As she approached, he reached into his pocket and drew out his laser screwdriver and began to adjust the settings. Despite her brave front, Tejana couldn't help feeling a chill of dread as she recognised the controls he was using. All at once, everything became clear in her mind.

_So that was to be her punishment. She was to be aged too, just like the Doctor._

Even though she had removed the Lazarus technology from the Master's screwdriver in the future, it would have been easy enough for him to re-install once they were back on board _The Valiant_. Obtaining her biological code would also have been no problem for him. A single hair from her hair-brush would have been sufficient to give him the information he needed. And, of course, the dress...the dress she had worn to the Lazarus reception. A little clue for her as to what was to come, one of his cruel little jokes.

She thought desperately of the youthful image she had stared at so recently in the mirror. Soon that face would show all of her nearly six hundred years of life, her hair thin and white, her skin dry and wrinkled, her eyes rheumed with age. She knew it would hurt and she was afraid. But she would be damned if she would give him the satisfaction of showing it.

_We've come full circle, _she reflected bitterly. _Right back to the beginning, here on The Valiant, enemies all over again._

The one tiny consolation she held on to was that she had never told him how much she loved him. He probably would have laughed himself sick.

The Master finished setting the controls on his screwdriver and looked up at her again. She stiffened her spine in readiness. However, instead of aiming the deadly device at her as she had expected, he nodded to one of the nearby guards. As she watched, the Doctor's wheelchair was pushed forward to centre stage. Tejana's mouth went dry in horror. The screwdriver wasn't meant for her. Yet again, the Master was going to make someone else pay for her actions. And this time it was going to be her father.

A flashback from the Year That Never Was ripped through her mind – _the blast of the screwdriver; the Doctor contorting madly in agony, his body shrinking, collapsing in on itself; the Master's cold voice, "Older...and older...and older..."; gut-wrenching fear tearing at her as she stared in disbelief at the pile of empty clothes lying on the ground; then, finally, finally, the tiny movement at the neck of the shirt, as the wizened little figure appeared, the huge eyes blinking dazedly beneath the large, domed forehead._

The Master had come so close to killing the Doctor back then, so very close...she couldn't let it happen all over again.

"No! Koschei, you can't!" she cried, starting forward, only to feel Damon's hands restraining her from behind. "Please, don't! I'll do anything! _Please don't!_"

But it was too late. The triple tip of the screwdriver had already extended, focused on the Doctor. Even as she begged, the Master pressed the trigger and the bright beam blazed forth, enveloping her father in a glittering field of energy, his tortured body twisting and writhing like a worm on a hot pavement.

* * *

**- Lucy Saxon's Suite, _The Valiant, _Christmas Day 2008 -**

Slowly, very slowly, Lucy Saxon rose to her feet in a lithe, feral movement. With a snarl of joy, she stretched her arms wide, her head thrown back in ecstasy, the alien silver markings coiling and dancing along her skin in the dim light.

The time was finally here. After centuries of waiting, trapped in Time like a dragonfly in amber, Legion was strong again. And it was Christmas Day once more, just as it had been so long ago, when the foul blue box had fallen from the sky, vomiting forth the accursed Time Lord to rend and destroy all that Legion had wrought upon the Earth.

But this was the dawn of a new age. On this Christmas Day, there would be no love, no peace and no goodwill to mankind. On this Christmas Day, there would only be terror and agony and death.

And on this Christmas Day, Legion would teach the Doctor the true meaning of suffering.

* * *

**- The Flight Deck, _The Valiant, _Christmas Day, 2008 -**

The luminous glow from the tip of the screwdriver gradually faded away, releasing the Doctor from its ravaging intensity. At last, Tejana managed to tear away from Damon's hands, falling to her knees beside her father's crumpled form. An audible gasp of amazement reverberated around the room as everyone craned their necks for a better view of what the Master had done.

Trembling, Tejana reached out to stroke her father's cheek, her own face pale with shock. Instead of the withered, gnome-like figure she had expected, the man lying on the floor appeared to be in his late thirties, his body tall and lanky, unbowed by age. His skin was youthful and unwrinkled, his hair a luxuriant dark-brown.

The Master had not accelerated his enemy's aging process, he had reversed it. The Doctor had been restored to his original state.

Slowly, incredulously, Tejana raised her head and met the Master's eyes.

"Merry Christmas, Ana," he said softly.

* * *

**- The Jones Family Cell, _The Valiant_, Christmas Day 2008 -**

"What the hell did you make of that?" Clive Jones asked, trying to get comfortable on his narrow bunk. "You don't suppose he's going soft, do you?"

They had all been returned to their cells, once the Master's little show was over - all except the Doctor, who had been fitted with an ankle chain and left in his tent on the flight deck, struggling to recover from the debilitating effect of the Lazarus technology.

As usual, the guards had hand-cuffed the Jones family to their bunks. Clive, who was not a small man, tended to cramp up very easily. He was busy stretching his fingers as he spoke, trying to increase the blood flow to his manacled hand.

Francine and Tish did not reply, sitting stiffly on their bunks as though they hadn't even heard him.

"What's the matter with you two?" Clive said grumpily. "Cat got your tongues?"

Their heads swivelled around, two pairs of familiar dark eyes surveying him coldly. But then, even as he watched, a blazing flame of yellow exploded within their irises, their pupils elongating vertically, their gaze serpent-like and hypnotic. An intricate network of silver lines snaked up their arms and neck with horrifying speed, tattooing their faces with a delicate filigree of argent.

Clive's mouth fell open in astonishment. "What the..."

With a simultaneous, powerful movement, the two women ripped their hand-cuffs free from their bunks. Before Clive could even move, Francine's hands shot out and gripped his head, savagely absorbing every spark of electrical energy in his body, until he collapsed dead to the floor, brutally murdered by his own wife.

Francine and Tish stood looking down at him, their faces as emotionless as stone.

"_MY NAME IS LEGION, FOR WE ARE MANY," _they recited together. "_LEGION RULES BOTH THE LIVING AND THE DEAD._ _RISE AND OBEY._"

The body lying in front of them quivered, before sitting up in a single jerky motion and tearing free the hand-cuff that secured it to the bed. Obsidian-dark, pupil-less eyes glared fixedly out of the undead face. Following in the wake of the two women, the thing that had once been Clive Jones lumbered out of the room.

* * *

**- The Morgue, _The Valiant_, Christmas Day, 2008 -**

At the same moment, in response to the same silent summons, the corpse of Peter Evans rose stiffly from the autopsy table on which he lay, his eyes equally black, empty and soulless. Shambling over to the wall of stainless steel body drawers, he began to methodically open them. One by one, the other macabre figures climbed free, until Peter was surrounded by a platoon of the undead. Moving in perfect unison, they turned and marched relentlessly to the door.

* * *

**- Gwen and Tosh's Cell, _The Valiant_, Christmas Day, 2008 -**

A quick, efficient blast of electrical energy shattered the lock on the cell door and it slid open. Without hesitation, Gwen and Tosh emerged, their eyes yellow and feral as they stalked up the corridor.

The war had begun.

* * *

**- Tejana's Suite, **_**The Valiant**_**, Christmas Day, 2008 -**

The Master stood looking out the large windows at the misty swirls of grey cloud scudding past on the wind. Tejana sat behind him on the couch, silently watching him. She didn't know what he expected from her any more. Restoring the Doctor in this way was probably the closest he would ever be able to come to asking forgiveness for what had happened between them the previous night. Part of her badly wanted to go to him, to accept the olive branch he had extended to her, to feel his arms around her and to lose herself in the possession of his kiss. But the other part of her, hard and obdurate, recognised that nothing had really changed, despite his token gesture. They were still in 2008. He still refused to take them back where they belonged and she was still his prisoner. And so she said nothing, waiting motionlessly to see what he would do.

He made no demands on her, made no effort to touch her or even to come close to her. He just stood there, staring out at the sky.

Finally, just as she thought she would scream from the tension in the room, he said quietly, "You look beautiful in that dress. Just as beautiful as the first time I saw you in it."

Her head snapped up sharply. "The only other time I wore this dress was at the reception for Professor Lazarus. You weren't even there."

"I was there," he replied tightly. "You just didn't see me. I watched every move you and the Doctor made. I funded the Professor's research, remember?"

"It's not like I could forget!" she shot back, thinking of the pain the Lazarus technology had inflicted on her father during The Year That Never Was. "You mean you watched that whole thing with the monster?"

"Yeah," the Master answered, his gaze far away on the distant horizon. "I watched you kick off your shoes and rip a split up the side of that dress and run back into that building after the Doctor. You didn't hesitate for a second. You didn't even think about the monster, all you cared about was making sure the Doctor was safe. And I remember hating him even more for that, because he always had you to watch his back. I've never had anyone to watch my back, not since we left the Academy on Gallifrey."

Tejana's hearts ached at the words, hearing the undertone of loneliness and uncertainty hidden within the edginess of his voice - the same odd vulnerability that had once persuaded her he could change, that she should leave her home, her family, her entire life for him.

"What do you want from me, Koschei?" she asked wearily. "Why did you even bother to bring me back with you?"

At last, he turned towards her, his dark eyes intent on her face. "You know the answer to that."

"No, I don't. I hated you for centuries, ever since I was a child. I should _still_ hate you. After everything you've done, all the people you've hurt and killed, I should loathe and despise you, just like Martha, just like Jack. But after what happened in The Matrix, I couldn't hate you any more, no matter how hard I tried. When I thought you were dead for all those months, it was like I had broken glass inside my hearts. I didn't _want_ to care that you were gone but it hurt, it hurt so much. And when I found out that you were still alive..." For a moment, she hesitated, closing her eyes to hold back the tears. "I didn't understand any of it until we met the Could-Have-Been-King in the catacombs of Avalon. After that, it all seemed so clear – the Universe had brought us back together because we were always meant to be. But for what? For _this_? For us to end up back here, with me learning to hate you all over again, a little more every day? What was the point, Koschei? What was the point of any of it?"

"I need you, Ana," he bit out, as though the very words burned his mouth.

She laughed sarcastically, throwing her hands in the air. "Oh, I know that. Of course you need me, I'm the last living Time Lady. How else are you going to get your pure-blood Time Lord son? I'm your _breeding stock_!"

"That's not what I meant!"

"Oh no?" she spat angrily. "Then what did you mean? Explain it to me, Koschei, because I don't get it. Why exactly do you need me?"

The Master stared at her, conflict written across his face, an odd mixture of hunger and desperation in his eyes. "Because...because I l..."

But before he could complete the sentence, there was a loud commotion outside and the door unceremoniously slid open. Security Chief Anderson tumbled into the room, his hair standing wildly on end, panic emanating from every line in his pudgy little body.

"My Lord! My Lord!" he cried frantically. "Please, forgive this intrusion!"

"_WHAT?_"

The savage fury erupting across the Master's face would have frightened a much stronger man than Security Chief Anderson. Seeing a damp patch appear on his trousers, Tejana suspected the little man might actually have wet himself then and there.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he gabbled, clearly terrified for his life. "It's an uprising against you. Your wife, sir, Mrs Saxon...she's leading a large group of rebels. They're trying to take over the ship. They've killed a lot of your people already, my Lord."

"_Lucy?_" the Master exclaimed incredulously. Then he swung angrily back towards Tejana. "This is your doing, isn't it? You and your bloody father! This is another one of his oh-so-brilliant plans to stop me!"

"No! This has nothing to do with us!" she protested. "I tried to tell you about Lucy, but you wouldn't listen!"

But the Master was already snapping out orders to the Security Chief. "I want all the prisoners brought up to the flight deck and secured there. I want all remaining security personnel to assemble at the first check-point, fully armed. I'll summon the Toclafane and meet them there. I think it's about time I had a little word with my wife."

"Koschei, stop! Please, you have to listen!" Tejana cried, running forward to seize his arm. "Lucy's not what you think she is! You're walking into a trap!"

He pulled roughly away from her and spoke again to the Security Chief. "See that Lady Tejana is also escorted to the flight deck. And keep her safe, or I'll kill you myself."

With that, he strode out the door, sliding it securely closed behind him, just as Tejana reached it. "Wait! Why won't you _listen_?" she screamed, pounding uselessly on the door. "You stupid bloody man! You're going to get yourself killed! Koschei! _Koschei!_"

Knowing he was gone, she leaned her forehead hopelessly against the wall. "You idiot! You're going to get yourself killed," she whispered despairingly. "And I'll never know what you were going to say to me."


	15. Chapter 15

_**Author's Note: **_

_**Hello everyone! Thanks so much to the following wonderful people for reviewing the previous chapter: Catelly, iLuvTwiBoyz, Jiwa, tardisandafirebolt, GallifreanGirl, Riverbleu, MayFairy, KlinicallyInsaneKoschei, babybluepineapple, Lost Moon, OhTex and Seileach (x 2) and Beautiful Rogue.**_

_**Massive thanks to XxCoffee-and-CreamxX for another huge catch-up - I'm so excited to have you back on board, you rock!**_

_**Big wave to Omniac - thanks for your review and your lovely PMs. I've said it before and I'll say it again, you are amazing.**_

_**And hi also to Kaylie S, thanks for your PM, glad you are still reading!  
**_

**_This chapter was actually not intended to end where it does. However, as I wrote it, I realised that it was going to end up as the longest chapter in the Universe if I didn't split it up. So, hopefully it works just as well as two shorter chapters._**

**_Deep breath, fingers crossed again, here goes..._**

**_

* * *

_**

**CHAPTER FIFTEEN**

**- Tejana's Suite, _The Valiant, _Christmas Day 2008 - **

For a brief, uncomfortable moment, left alone in the room, Tejana and Security Chief Anderson stared at each other. The beefy little man couldn't help squirming under the Time Lady's icy regard. As important and urgent as his own news had been, he definitely got the feeling that he had just intruded upon something very significant between the Master and his woman. A sheen of sweat broke out on his forehead just thinking about the rage on the Time Lord's face. He could only pray that Lucy's attempt at insurrection would prove serious enough to divert the Master's attention from his transgression. Using his ear-piece communicator, he ordered Damon into the room. Once the young guard arrived, the Security Chief instructed him to escort Lady Tejana to the flight deck immediately.

"And for God's sake, keep her safe, or we'll all pay for it!" he hissed nervously, before rushing out the door.

Damon watched him go, a look of contempt in his dark eyes. "He's probably going to find the nearest rock to hide under until this is all over!" he remarked, glancing over at Tejana.

But Tejana wasn't in the slightest bit interested in Security Chief Anderson. He could fall off the side off the ship for all she cared. Her mind was focused on someone altogether different.

"Damon, where's the first check-point?" she asked, her face tight with determination.

"What?"

"The place where the Master was going – _where is it_?"

Damon frowned, not at all sure he liked where this was heading. "It's...it's on the same floor as the flight deck, but on the other side of the ship."

The next minute, Tejana was crouching down, impatiently fiddling with the hem of her dress. "Here we go again," she muttered, before digging her fingers into the delicate material and ripping another gaping split all the way up the right hand side of the skirt. Then, with a sharp movement, she kicked off her shoes and hurried towards the open door, moving easily now in her torn gown and bare feet.

Lunging forward, Damon just managed to grab her arm. "Oh no, you don't! I have orders to get you safely to the flight deck."

Her eyes met his and he almost flinched at the white-hot anger he saw burning there, even though he knew it wasn't directed at him. "If that stupid, pig-headed, arrogant fool of a Time Lord thinks he can get out of finishing our conversation by getting himself killed, he has another think coming!"

"Wait a minute, you can't..."

Tejana's simmering temper finally boiled over. She was so _sick_ of the men in her life trying to control everything she did. The Doctor, Jack, the bloody Master, and now Damon...enough was enough!

"_Don't _tell me what I can and can't do!" she snarled. "Either come with me, Damon, or get the hell out of my way!"

Damon wavered for a moment, yet again torn between his sense of duty and his instinctive trust in Tejana. "All right, you win," he said at last, resignedly. "I'm coming. What are you planning to do?"

She gave him a fierce smile. "What Time Lords do best."

"Which is?"

She was already sprinting lightly for the door as she tossed the answer back over her shoulder.

"_RUN_!"

* * *

**- The Flight Deck, _The Valiant, _Christmas Day 2008 - **

Sitting inside his canvas tent, the Doctor stretched his muscles surreptitiously, rejoicing in the renewed strength and vitality he could feel in his limbs. Lifting both hands to his head, he ran his fingers through his soft, thick, spiky hair. Oh, it was _brilliant_ to be back!

He still had no real idea why the Master had changed his mind, especially after the other Time Lord's obvious anger the previous night. When the laser screwdriver had been pointed at him that morning, he had honestly thought it was all over, that after nine hundred years of matching wits across the Universe, the Master was finally going to kill him. Then, the agonising blast of energy, the miraculous feeling of his limbs straightening, his skin tightening, his hair thickening, the youth surging back through him like a tidal wave. And, through it all, through the haze of pain and transformation, the memory of the strange look on the Master's face as he gazed intently at Tejana.

_Things are a bit different, in the future..._

His daughter...and the Master. Even now, after a night of mulling it over, the knowledge still sat heavily in the Doctor's stomach like a stone. What could have happened, such a short time into the future? What could have changed things so drastically that Tejana would look to the Master for love? He still couldn't believe it. The soft expression in her eyes when she had told him...he had never seen her look like that before, not for Turlough, not for Jack, not for anyone...

_I love him. There is no-one else for me. I don't think there ever will be._

A fresh wave of anger swept through the Doctor. For his daughter to say _that _about the Master, of all people! The renegade Time Lord had never cared for anyone but himself, his crazed lust for power and dominance driving him further and further into acts of depravity and evil, his personality now so far removed from the Koschei of long ago that the Doctor scarcely recognised him any more. It just wasn't possible that the Master could really care for Tejana. It had to be some sort of trick, some sort of attempt at revenge. It was the only answer, the only reasonable explanation.

Yet, he had restored the Doctor when he didn't have to, apparently for the sole purpose of pleasing Tejana. And there was that odd look on his face as he watched her, a sort of hungry longing, something the Doctor couldn't even begin to describe or interpret.

_Oh, Tejana, _the Doctor thought despairingly. _What have you gone and got yourself into?_

Suddenly, behind him on the Bridge, he sensed something had changed, interrupting his train of thought. The activity levels had picked up. People were running backwards and forwards frenetically, staccato orders were being given across the communications system and the levels of tension seemed to be escalating dramatically. Frowning, the Doctor crawled out of the tent to see what was going on.

As he did so, the main doors slid open and Martha was shoved into the room by a couple of guards, closely followed by two men the Doctor recognised as members of Jack's Torchwood team, also escorted by a black-clad security detachment.

Another man came forward anxiously to meet them, his uniform marking him as a UNIT Captain. "Where are the others? The Master gave orders for all prisoners to be secured on the flight deck."

"Damon Smith is bringing Lady Tejana down from her rooms. And Hammond and Dalgliesh are bringing Harkness up from the Engine Room," one of the guards replied. "But the Jones family and the Torchwood women were not in their cells. It looks like someone has already released them."

The Captain swore violently. "They must be part of the rebellion. The Master isn't going to be happy about this. Put these three with the other prisoner, where we can keep an eye on them. The last thing we need is any of them escaping."

Martha and the two men were roughly shoved down next to the Doctor.

"Sit there and don't move!" the guard growled. "Otherwise I'll quite happily shoot you dead."

"Cheerful sort of chap!" the Doctor said under his breath, as the man moved away. "Martha, are you all right?"

"I'm fine, just a bit bruised, nothing that won't heal," she whispered back. "Oh, Doctor, it's so good to see you back to your old self!"

"Or not so old, as the case may be!" the Doctor grinned. "Brilliant, isn't it?"

Then, his gaze fell on the two Torchwood operatives. "Hello! We haven't actually met yet – I'm the Doctor!"

"Yeah, we gathered that," the man in the leather jacket said. "I'm Doctor Owen Harper, the Torchwood Medical Officer. This is Ianto Jones, tea-boy extraordinaire."

"Pleased to meet you," Ianto said politely, ignoring his colleague's sarcastic method of introduction. From the resigned expression on his face, the Doctor guessed he was used to Doctor Harper's snarky attitude.

"So what the hell is going on, any ideas?" Owen asked. "This place is suddenly like a stirred-up ant's nest."

"It's a rebellion, from what the guards were saying," Martha replied, keeping her voice low. "Led by the Master's wife."

Owen's eyes brightened with a savage light, the memories of Jack's torture still fresh in his mind. "About time somebody did something!" he said. "Hopefully they'll kill the bastard!"

"But how did Gwen and Tosh get involved so quickly?" Ianto queried uneasily. "They don't know the Master's wife."

"And my family would never help her!" Martha added.

"I'm not so sure it's all as straightforward as you think," the Doctor said, worriedly rubbing at the back of his neck. "Believe it or not, there are worse things in the Universe than the Master, none of which I want to see in charge of this ship. I'm afraid we may have just jumped from the frying-pan into the fire."

* * *

**- The Lift, _The Valiant, _Christmas Day, 2008 -**

Tejana and Damon were standing in the lift, feeling it slowly beginning to descend to the lower levels of the ship, when all at once it stopped dead with a sharp, stomach-wrenching jolt. Damon cursed and began pressing buttons at random on the control panel, as if he was trying to give the elevator some sort of jump-start. Tejana rolled her eyes in disgust.

"Why do humans always _do_ that?" she asked crossly. "It's not going to help, you know. Here, give me a look."

Slamming her fist on to the control panel, she popped open the inspection hatch, staring in at the complex tangle of circuitry. All at once, she felt the elevator carriage give a small quiver, like a small animal shaking itself. The colour drained from her face as she suddenly understood what was happening.

"Oh, crap!" she whispered, frantically pulling at the wiring inside the hatch.

"What?" Damon demanded.

"Electricity!" she hissed. "The creature feeds on electricity! And it's gearing up to fight the Master. It's draining the ship. _The Valiant _systems are responding by closing down all non-essential services, such as the lifts."

"So we're stuck here?"

"Worse than that. If the drain continues, soon there won't even be enough power to hold us stationary."

"You mean...?"

"What goes up, must come down," Tejana replied grimly. "Usually very, very fast!"

"Oh, crap!" Damon agreed fervently, as his mind provided him with a vivid and very unwelcome image of the lift carriage plummeting madly down the elevator shaft. "What do we do?"

"I'm trying to re-route all the remaining power to the emergency brake, before it's too late," she answered, pulling savagely at one of the wires, before desperately attempting to bite through it. "Damn the Master! He _had_ to go and break my laser screwdriver, didn't he?"

"This help?" Damon asked dryly, pulling a Swiss Army Knife out of his pocket.

Tejana shot him a baleful glare as she spat a fragment of wire out of her mouth. "Oh, now you tell me!" she growled, snatching the knife from him.

Swiftly, using the sharp blade, she set about stripping and reconnecting wires at a blinding pace. The lift carriage trembled again and the lights flickered wildly. Then there was a series of sickening jerks. Slowly, but with gathering speed, they began to move downwards again.

"Please tell me you're doing that?" Damon queried.

"Not me," Tejana gritted out, still working furiously. "You'd better hold on to something!"

Not knowing what else to do, Damon did as she said, feeling his stomach rise in protest as the carriage began to drop faster and faster, falling and falling, plunging out of control.

* * *

**- Security Checkpoint One, _The Valiant, _Christmas Day, 2008 -**

The Master looked in satisfaction at the company of approximately thirty men assembled before him, a mixture of his own guard and UNIT soldiers, armed to the teeth with automatic weapons. At his back, he could feel the two Toclafane hovering, as always eager to do his bidding. He had considered ordering further back-up from the ground, or even summoning some more Toclafane, but had decided against it. It would take too long for more men to get here and it wasn't as though he would need more of the deadly spheres to crush Lucy's pathetic little rebellion. He was the Master. He was in control of everything – _The Valiant_, the Earth, the Archangel Network, the Toclafane. There was nothing anyone could do to stop him, least of all Lucy.

Twice now, Lucy had tried to kill him – first with a bullet, then with the anti-rebirth potion during his resurrection ceremony. Well, she would soon find out that three times was one time too many...this time the Master would kill _her_.

Despite himself, he heard Tejana's voice echoing in his mind. _Lucy's not what you think she is! You're walking into a trap!_

Resolutely, he brushed the thought away, his hearts tight with anger. He could so obviously see the Doctor's hand in this. Tejana must think he was stupid. It was very fortunate that the Security Chief had interrupted them before he had said something he would regret. Love was for idiots and fools. It was not, and never would be, for the Master.

"Right then," he said coldly to his men. "Let's finish this once and for all."

* * *

**- The Lift, _The Valiant, _Christmas Day, 2008 -**

"Tejana!" Damon yelled as the lift continued to free fall at horrifying speed. "Now would be good!"

"I'm _trying_!" she yelled back. Nothing was working. She couldn't understand it. She had re-routed the power, but the emergency brake just wasn't kicking in. She and Damon were about to die. Unless...looking down at the knife in her hand, her eyes kindled. Shifting her grip on the handle, she pulled back her arm and stabbed the sharp blade deep into the heart of one of the circuits. Sparks blazed across the control panel and an obscene, screeching noise shattered the air as the brakes finally engaged, arresting their headlong plummet in a bone-juddering wrench. Tejana was thrown across the lift, colliding violently with the wall, and the lights went out.

For a moment there was complete, eerie silence, the blackness filled only with the acrid smell of friction-generated smoke. Tejana's head was spinning, the breath completely knocked out of her.

"Damon?" she rasped. "Damon! Are you all right?"

At first, he didn't reply and her anxiety began to sky-rocket. But then she heard him give a muffled cough. "Apart from breaking all my other ribs, yeah, I'm good," he replied hoarsely, his voice laced with pain. "Never boring, hanging out with you, is it?"

She gave a small sigh of relief. "Oh, you don't know the half of it. And it's not over yet. Now we have to work out how to get out of here."

Even as she spoke, she heard a tiny click and the darkness was pierced by the warm, yellow glow of a torch beam. "Looks like the only way to go is up," Damon said, playing the light across the service hatch in the ceiling.

Tejana couldn't help smiling. "Is there anything else in your pockets I should know about?"

"That you should know about?" Damon echoed with a grin. "Definitely not."

She scrabbled around on the floor until she found the knife she had dropped and handed it back to him. Then she looked up at the hatch. "Are you going to be able to climb with those ribs?"

"Got no choice, have I? If I can get you up there first, you can help to pull me up." Crouching low, he said, "Get on my back. I'll give you a boost."

Tejana hesitated for a moment, but then, knowing it was the only way, she did as he said. Slowly, very slowly, his breath wheezing in and out with agony, Damon raised her until she was high enough to shove aside the cover of the hatch, revealing the gaping maw of the elevator shaft above them. Grasping the edges of the opening, she began to use the strong muscles of her arms to pull herself up, her long, bare legs dangling inside the ruined skirt of her dress. At last, every tendon screaming in protest at the effort, her hearts pounding wildly, she managed to haul herself up through the gap until she was sitting on top of the elevator carriage.

Looking back down, she saw the pale disc of Damon's upturned face, gazing up at her in the torch-light. He was still breathing harshly, his expression etched with pain. Tejana swallowed a lump in her throat, knowing there was nothing she could do to help him.

"Well, that was undignified," she said lightly. "Another very good reason why I don't usually wear dresses. I hope you were keeping your eyes to yourself."

Damon gave a choked laugh. "Hey, what kind of boy do you think I am?"

"Sorry, I guess I'm too used to working with Jack," she answered wryly. "Hand me the torch please."

Flashing the light around, she was relieved to find that they had stopped just below a set of doors exiting the shaft. It would be easy enough to force them open with the army knife. The only real problem was going to be getting Damon up here. She was strong enough to pull him up, but with an already broken arm and crushed ribs, the ordeal would practically kill him. Tejana was torn – she didn't know what to do. On the one hand, she was desperate to reach the Master before it was too late. On the other, there was no way she could abandon Damon.

"Damon, it's going to hurt you very much if I try to pull you up..." she began.

"I don't care," he retorted, guessing what she was going to say. "I'm still your bodyguard and there's no way you're leaving me here."

"Damon..."

"NO!" he snapped. "Pull me up, Tejana, right now!"

Slipping his plastered arm out of his sling, he raised both hands as high as he could towards her, his jaw set in an attempt to block out the excruciating pain he knew was about to come. With a muttered curse, Tejana braced herself and reached down to him, gritting her teeth as she grasped his hands.

Then she began to pull and Damon began to scream.

* * *

**- The Flight Deck, _The Valiant, _Christmas Day 2008 - **

"Jack seems to think you're something special," Owen said bluntly, appraising the Doctor with sceptical eyes. "So, if you're so special,_ Doctor_...what's your plan?"

"I'm working on it," the Doctor replied, his voice curt. Owen Harper was beginning to get on his nerves. "The first thing I need to do is to get out of this ankle chain."

"Maybe I can help with that," Martha spoke up. Reaching up to her severely pulled back hair, she drew a bobby pin out of the tight knot at the back of her head. Quickly, she curled it into a make-shift lock pick and inserted it into the keyhole of his ankle cuff.

The Doctor sighed, watching her twist and turn the small piece of wire. "Don't bother, Martha. That's never going to..."

As he spoke, there was a tiny click and the manacle opened and fell away. Martha glanced up at him in triumph.

"Work," the Doctor finished weakly.

Ianto looked at her admiringly. "Nice one!" he approved.

"Huh!" the Doctor snorted with annoyance, unwilling to admit he had been wrong. "Fluke!"

* * *

**- The Lower Levels, _The Valiant, _Christmas Day 2008 - **

Tejana and Damon lay side-by-side on the corridor floor, covered in grease and grime and sweat, their backs against the wall. The young guard was still conscious, but only just. His agony as Tejana had hauled him out of the lift carriage had been indescribable. The Time Lady's ears were still ringing from his terrible screams. Listening to his ragged, stertorous breathing, she felt almost sick with guilt. Everything that had happened to him had been her fault, and every move she made just seemed to make it worse.

"I'm sorry, Damon," she whispered.

"Don't be...sorry..." he answered, his eyes closed, his face as white as the snow-balls he had once thrown at her. "This is the...Engine Room Level. The only thing...below this is the...Storage Level. If that lift had...fallen much...further..."

She was about to reply when the staccato sound of automatic gunfire echoed back to them from further up the dim corridor.

"Oh no, what now?" Tejana breathed. They were in a dead end, the only exit to the small side corridor being the gaping elevator doors behind them. Up ahead, they could hear the unmistakable sound of pounding feet heading towards them.

Damon gave something resembling a snarl and, with a supreme effort, managed to lever himself to his feet. Not far away, pushed to the side of the passageway, a tall trolley stood, its shelves loaded with maintenance equipment. With one sharp movement, Damon pulled it over on its side with an ear-splitting crash, forming a makeshift barricade between them and the oncoming threat.

Drawing his weapon, he crouched behind the shelter of the trolley, beckoning Tejana to join him.

"Keep your head down!" he ordered sharply.

Tejana obeyed, sliding in beside him, even as more gunfire sounded, coming closer and closer.


	16. Chapter 16

**_Author's Note: Hey all! Big thanks to the following people for reviewing the last chapter: MayFairy, GallifreanGirl, tardisandafirebolt, Seileach, RiverBleu, iLuvTwiBoyz, XxCoffee-and-CreamxX, Aietradaea, Jiwa, Omniac, Beautiful Rogue, Lost Moon, babybluepineapple and Catelly._**

**_Special thanks to Catelly for a lovely PM as well as a review! Also, thanks to Aietradaea for a good yak, nice to have you back!  
_**

_**Now, here's the thing - I don't usually ask specifically for reviews (even though I totally love them), because I believe that choosing whether or not to review is a personal choice. However, I must say that I am very, very excited about getting so close to a review total of 200, which will be a personal milestone and a great joy for me. Therefore, in this case, if you love me at all, or if you have ever enjoyed one of my stories, or if you appreciate all my hard work and regular updates, I do request that you review this particular chapter, even if you have never reviewed before and never intend to again, LOL. Really, I would appreciate it so much, even just a couple of words to get me over the line!**_

**_If anyone is interested (which you probably aren't) my personal soundtrack for this chapter was "Amy in the TARDIS" from the Season Five Soundtrack._**

**_So here it is, the second half of what was going to be the longest chapter in the Universe, LOL - hope you enjoy (and review)!  
_**

* * *

**CHAPTER SIXTEEN**

**- Lower Levels of _The Valiant_, Christmas Day, 2008 -**

Closer and closer came the sound of pounding feet. Tejana found herself holding her breath, hoping against hope that they had found the Master after all, even though the gunfire did not seem to be on a large enough scale for a pitched battle against the energy parasite. At last, they saw three men charge around the corner, still running at full tilt. Two of the fugitives were dressed in black and were wearing scarlet UNIT berets. They were armed with sub-machine guns, defensively pointing them back the way they they had come, even as they ran. The third man was tall and dark-haired, dressed in a ragged shirt and trousers. He was unarmed, with his hands cuffed securely together. And, to Tejana at least, he was a very familiar and very welcome sight.

"Jack!" she yelled, popping her head up above the barricade. "JACK!"

Exasperated, Damon seized her and pulled her down again. "I said, keep your head down!" he hissed.

"Tejana!" Jack shouted back, before pelting down the passageway and diving in alongside them, closely followed by the two UNIT soldiers.

Roughly, Jack pulled Tejana as close to him as he could with his tightly cuffed hands, dropping a kiss on her hair. "Are you all right? What the hell are you doing down here?"

"I'm fine," she replied, hugging him fiercely, her hearts clenching painfully at the emaciated feel of his once muscular frame. "We had a bit of trouble with the lift. What's going on, Jack? What are you running from?"

"You're not going to believe this," he said grimly. "Actually, scratch that. Knowing you and the Doctor, you probably will believe it. I think we're being chased by a bunch of zombies."

"Zombies!" Tejana exclaimed. This information hadn't been at all what she was expecting. "_What_?"

"Yeah, we were heading for the flight deck and a pack of them came out of nowhere," Jack replied. "Just like a horror movie, all coal-black eyes, white faces, shambling walk...and they aren't pretty, believe me! We managed to get ahead of them, but they're still coming. We were hoping to use the lift to get out of here."

"Not happening, I'm afraid," Tejana said shortly. "The lift's out of commission." Then, looking at the UNIT soldiers, she snapped out, "You two, we need Jack's hands free, right now. I'm guessing you're about to need all the help you can get."

The two men looked at each other uncertainly, caught on the horns of a dilemma. Jack was one of the Master's most important prisoners. They were supposed to be escorting him to the flight deck under secure guard. By releasing him, they could well be signing their own death warrants. If they had to choose between the zombies and the Master's wrath, they weren't so sure they shouldn't go with the zombies.

"Do it," Damon spoke up authoritatively. Young as he was, as a member of the Master's elite bodyguard, he outranked both of the UNIT men. Reluctantly, the taller soldier moved to obey, producing a key from his pocket and unlocking Jack's cuffs.

Jack's eyes flicked across to Damon, looking him up and down appreciatively, bruises and all. "Captain Jack Harkness. And who are _you_?"

"Damon Smith," the young guard replied, with a quick grin at Tejana, remembering her earlier comment about Jack being perfectly capable of introducing himself.

Tejana rolled her eyes. "_Not now_, Jack," she sighed impatiently. "Zombies, remember?"

"I was just saying hello," he retorted in an aggrieved tone. Then, switching his attention back to her bodyguard, he added, "And while you're at it, Damon Smith, I could use a gun."

Damon gestured at the shorter soldier, who passed Jack a semi-automatic pistol from his belt holster. Jack hefted it expertly in his hand, removing the safety and racking the slide mechanism to chamber the first round.

"By the way, this is Corporal Kieran Hammond," he said, indicating the short, sandy-haired guard. Then, pointing to the taller, darkly-moustached soldier, "And this is Private Adam Dalgliesh. Fellas, this is Tejana and Damon."

Tejana nodded at them abstractedly, her eyes fixed on the mouth of the corridor, unsurprised that the incorrigible Captain was familiar with the names of his guards. Knowing the Jack of this time-line, he had probably already tried to chat both of them up. Before anything else could be said, they heard a peculiar shuffling sound up ahead, as though many feet were dragging and sliding along the smooth floor.

"Get ready," Jack said, his tone suddenly hard and business-like, taking command effortlessly, as always. "They're coming."

Slowly, ponderously, a group of shadowy figures rounded the corner, all moving in perfect synchronicity. Tejana's breath caught in her throat in shock. Jack hadn't been kidding when he said they weren't pretty. There were nine of them in total, all of them male. Apart from the figure in the lead, they were all naked, their skin fish belly white, each of their chests emblazoned with a livid, recently stitched autopsy incision. Even from this distance, she could see the stygian pits of their eyes, their bloated features completely empty and expressionless. But, as bad as this was, the most vile thing of all – the stuff that screaming nightmares were made of - was the creature at the apex of their arrow-head formation. It was dressed in the black uniform of the Master's guard, its loathsome eyes crawling back and forth like two slugs in its pallid dead face, its lips pulled back from its teeth in the frozen rictus of the damned.

"Oh my God!" Damon said in a strangled voice. "Peter! That's Peter!"

Involuntarily, almost without conscious thought, he rose as if to go to his friend. Tejana grabbed his jacket sharply and pulled him back down. "No, Damon! I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, but whatever that thing is, it isn't Peter any more!"

Unhurriedly, the gruesome cadavers began to pace towards them, with Peter in the lead.

"Open fire!" Jack shouted, taking aim at Peter's head. "NOW!"

Tejana clapped her hands over her ears as once again the air was filled with the deafening sound of automatic gunfire. The hail of ammunition tore violently into the approaching zombies, stopping them in their tracks, their bodies undulating in a macabre dance under the impact of the bullets. Jack's first shot took Peter between the eyes, instantly flinging the dead man backwards. One by one, the other corpses fell twitching to the floor, until none of them were left standing.

"Cease fire!" Jack ordered.

For a moment, nothing moved, the only sound in the corridor the hoarse breathing of the small group of defenders. Then, with a chilling deliberation, Peter sat up, a blackened, bloodless bullet hole marring his forehead, his contorted grimace unchanged. Around him, the other creatures also rose, climbing steadily to their feet and regrouping into the arrowhead formation.

Again, Jack gave the command and another barrage of bullets ripped into the oncoming corpses, shredding their flesh into gruesome ribbons, bombarding them until once more they collapsed under the deadly rain of shrapnel. But almost before the defenders could blink, the unnatural monsters were reviving again, moving even more slowly now, but still single-mindedly coming towards them. One of them, its body too badly damaged to stand, was even crawling, dragging itself along with terrible, obsessive purpose.

"Holy Mother of God!" Hammond breathed, his voice filled with incredulous fear. "What the hell _are_ they?"

Jack was about to order another round, when unexpectedly the zombies stopped for no apparent reason. They were completely motionless, frozen in place, almost as though they were waiting for something. Just then, another figure appeared in the corridor behind the platoon of the undead. It was a small, dark-haired female wearing a short, black, sleeveless dress.

"Hold your fire!" Jack snapped, aware they could not shoot without hitting the woman. "Isn't that the bimbo the Master has been screwing around with? Tania something, isn't it? What does she think she's doing? She'll get herself killed!"

But Tejana could already smell it. The feculent, rancid stench of ozone and old blood, the rank aroma reaching through the air for her like invisible, strangling hands.

"I think it's too late for that, Jack," she said shakily.

Even as she spoke, Tania stepped forward into the dim light of the corridor and they saw the serpentine whorls of iridescent silver coiling up her arms and across her face. Her xanthic eyes shone like two jaundiced moons, slashed across by the black, vertical pupils. Tejana stared intently at the possessed woman, knowing that she was finally confronting the monster from her nightmares. A surge of anger jolted through her veins as she suddenly understood. The psi-bracelet had not just separated her from the Doctor, it had also removed her from the protection of the Master's mind, leaving her dreams wide open and vulnerable once more. This creature, whatever it was, had taken advantage of that window of opportunity, stalking her in her sleep, playing with her mind like a cat plays with a mouse, relishing her fear.

_Well_, Tejana thought proudly, _it needed to learn that she was not a mouse_. _She was the last daughter of Gallifrey and she would never allow her fear to rule her._

Before Jack or Damon could stop her, she rose to her feet with haughty precision, her face stern and her eyes imperious. "My name is Tejanakaturadilena. I am a Time Lady of Gallifrey," she said peremptorily, her voice ringing with challenge. "Identify yourself."

The yellow eyes raked her face. The woman's mouth opened and a dark, primeval voice resonated eerily in the still air. "_MY NAME IS LEGION, FOR WE ARE MANY._"

"You are many? What does that mean?" Tejana demanded. "Are you some sort of gestalt entity? A hive mind?"

"_WE ARE MANY_," Legion said again, as if this was sufficient explanation.

The Time Lady raised her chin. "Why are you here? What do you want?"

"_TO FEED.._." came the rasping reply. "_WE HUNGER, BUT CANNOT BE SATISFIED. WE THIRST, BUT STILL OUR DESIRE CANNOT BE QUENCHED. WE WILL DRINK THIS PLANET DRY AND WE WILL MULTIPLY. WE ARE MANY AND SHALL BECOME MORE. WE WILL SPREAD WAR AND FAMINE AND DEATH TO THIS UNIVERSE AND BEYOND, THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE OF TIME AND SPACE."_

"Time?" Tejana queried coldly, her voice infused with all the inherent arrogance of her ancient race. "You over-reach yourself, Legion, whoever or whatever you are. The realms of Time belong to the Time Lords alone."

"_YOU ARE A LADY OF TIME. YOU WILL JOIN WITH US. YOU WILL BE ASSIMILATED, BECOMING ONE OF THE MANY,_" the creature said. "_WITH YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF TIME, WE WILL USE THE TEMPORAL RIFT TO SCATTER OUR SEED THROUGHOUT THE TIME VORTEX, MULTIPLYING AND CONQUERING WHEREVER WE GO. LEGION WILL BE SUPREME AND NONE SHALL STAND AGAINST US_."

Tejana's soul chilled, the horrifying implications of the monster's words becoming clear to her. If Legion succeeded in assimilating her, if it gained control of the Rift, there would be no stopping it. The parasitic creature would spread through all of Time like a virus, infecting and destroying countless planets until there was nothing left to feed on and reality itself turned to dust.

Without warning, Jack leapt to his feet. "Like hell she's going to become one of you! Not while I'm around!" he yelled, firing his gun unerringly at the possessed woman's head.

"Jack, no!" Tejana screamed.

Instantly, a field of protective energy sprang up around the creature, sending Jack's perfectly aimed bullet rebounding uselessly away into mid-air.

"_FOOLISH HUMAN!_" Legion snarled. Raising one hand of its stolen body, it extended a slender forefinger, tipped with a perfectly manicured nail, and pointed it at Jack. A crackling bolt of electricity shot out, striking the Captain squarely in the chest, ripping a smoking hole in his flesh right above his heart. He crashed backwards to the floor in a lifeless heap. Seeing him fall, Hammond and Dalgliesh panicked and began to fire their weapons desperately up the corridor, the jagged sound of gunfire mingling with the sharp, pinging echo of bullets ricocheting wildly off the metals walls. In the middle of the ear-splitting chaos, Damon caught Tejana around the waist with his good arm and pulled her down behind the barrier, fearing that a stray bullet would hit her.

Legion did not hesitate. Two more energy blasts exploded from Tania's finger, smashing violently into Hammond and Dalgleish, both their skulls disintegrating into a fine charcoal of ash and bone fragments. Tejana gasped in horror, turning her face away from the appalling sight, her throat tightening against the sweet, smoky smell of charred skin.

"_YOU WILL BE ASSIMILATED, TIME LADY. YOU WILL BECOME ONE OF THE MANY,_" Legion reiterated calmly, as if nothing had happened.

And with inexorable, measured steps, the creature began to move towards her, just as it had in her nightmares.

* * *

**- _The Hub_, March 2013 - **

"Oh, this isn't good," the Doctor muttered to himself, running both hands through his hair until it stood on end like a scrubbing brush. "This really, really isn't good."

"What?" Amy demanded, alarmed at the worried expression on his face as he bounded around the TARDIS console, checking screens and rapidly typing in commands as he went.

At that moment, Tejana and Jack came through the double doors.

"Where have you two been?" the Doctor snapped, his eyes still on the console.

"Around," Jack replied laconically.

Recognising the evasive answer, Amy's razor-sharp senses went on red alert, immediately detecting a distinct change in body language between the two new arrivals. She shot Tejana a quick, searching glance and soon had her suspicions confirmed when a delicate flush spread across the Time Lady's cheeks and she looked away. As always, absorbed in his calculations, the Doctor remained completely oblivious to the subtle nuances between his companions.

"Well, you might be interested to know, things just went from bad to worse," he told them distractedly.

"Why?" Tejana asked, moving away from Jack and coming up the stairs towards him. "What happened?"

"I calibrated the Master's temporal amplifier with the data scanner on the Rhondium Sensor," the Doctor replied. "To use the Rift to detect and measure the temporal fluctuations in the Web of Time occurring back in 2008."

"And?"

"And history is in total flux, almost a vacuum, changing far too quickly for the sensor to keep up with."

Jack frowned, following Tejana up the stairs. "But you expected that, didn't you? After all, that's why the Master went back, to change things."

"Except I don't think it's the Master. I think something else has happened," the Doctor said. "The sensor indicates that the period of time that's in flux is December 2008."

"So?"

"So, the Master's rockets weren't scheduled to launch until July 2009, one year to the day after he took power," the Doctor explained. "If he was responsible for the temporal flux, logically the months leading up to the launch would show a few small changes in the time-line to prevent me from infiltrating the Archangel Network, finally culminating in a massive redirection of history in July 2009. But instead of that, the temporal metastasis is occurring in December 2008, specifically Christmas Day. From what I can tell, people on board _The Valiant_ are dying...a lot of people. They're being wiped from the future even as we speak, just disappearing into thin air, with nobody remembering they even existed in this time-line. Something else is happening back then, something bad, and I don't think it's got anything to do with the Master."

"If it's not the Master killing people, then who? Or what?" Amy asked.

"I don't know," the Doctor replied grimly. "But once the flux settles, once history solidifies again, this entire time-line will be wiped out and replaced with a new future stemming from the altered events of Christmas Day, 2008."

"And we're all dead, right?" Jack said flatly.

"In a way. The people we are right now will never have existed," the Doctor conceded. "We'll all be in a different future, quite possibly not a good one."

"Can't you just hop in the TARDIS, zip back to Christmas Day 2008 and fix it all?" Amy asked in bewilderment. "You have a time machine, for heaven's sake. What's the problem?"

"He can't cross his own time-line," Tejana answered tersely. "The Master has left everything in perfect balance. If the Doctor disturbs the causal nexus by attempting to co-exist in the same temporal space with his former self, he could bring the whole thing crashing down."

"So how do we find out what's happening?" Amy demanded. "Doctor, there has to be a way. You always manage to find a way!"

"Maybe there is," Jack said quietly, before the Time Lord could answer.

Everyone looked at him in surprise. And, even as they watched, his eyes began to glow, brighter and brighter and brighter, flaming with pure white Time-fire.

"Jack...what are you doing?" the Doctor cried. "JACK!"

* * *

**- Lower Levels of _The Valiant_, Christmas Day, 2008 -**

Tejana backed away as the creature advanced, only to feel the wall of the corridor behind her, cold and unyielding. She was caught like a rat in a trap, watching the approach of the cat. Legion's eyes caught and held hers, the yellow orbs appearing to shift and swirl like mesmeric, kaleidoscopic pools. Tejana tried to resist the lethal hypnotic trance, but being cut off from the sixth sense, without the accustomed protection of her mental barriers, she was fighting a losing battle. The attraction was too great, she couldn't look away. A great blanket of lethargy seemed to envelop her, wrapping her tightly in warm, soft cotton-wool, sapping her will. The air was heavy, so heavy, it was an effort to remind her lungs to breath. _In, out, in, out_...she could hear the sound of her own respiration in her ears, a soothing, susserating swish like the surf sliding up the sand.

_Why was she even bothering to fight it? There was no point. No point to anything. Better to let go, better to sleep, just to slip away into peaceful nothingness..._

"_YOU WILL BECOME ONE OF THE MANY," _Legion intoned, close now, so very close, its hands reaching for her.

Suddenly, there was a savage shout and something cannoned brutally into the possessed woman's body, taking the creature by surprise and knocking it off balance. The malignant spell shattered, leaving Tejana gasping in shock, shaking her head to clear the obscuring mists from her mind. On the floor, she saw Damon struggling desperately with Legion, striking out at the monster again and again with the sharp blade of the Swiss Army Knife. But the injured bodyguard was no match for the creature's unnatural strength. With a guttural snarl, it thrust him aside, slamming him repeatedly into the ground until he howled with agony. Then, grinning ferally, it reached for his head, clamping its hands one on each side in an unbreakable grip, and began to drain his mind of electrical energy.

"_Damon!_" Tejana screamed, starting forward. "_No!_"

Miraculously, before she could take a step, another figure rose up in her path, tall and strong and powerful. Tejana stopped dead in her tracks. It was Jack, but not a Jack she had ever seen before. His body was glowing, limned in pure white, his eyes blazing with lambent Time-fire. Sensing the advent of a new threat, Legion dropped Damon and spun around, its yellow eyes widening as it saw Jack striding forward. Extending a forefinger, it let loose another devastating blast of energy. This time, however, instead of harming the oncoming Captain, it had no impact whatsoever, seeming to dissipate into nothing even as it struck him.

"_THIS IS NOT POSSIBLE!_" Legion exclaimed, its cavernous voice laden with disbelief. "_WHAT ARE YOU?_"

"Your worst nightmare!" Jack retorted, seizing the creature's throat in a death grip. Legion thrashed wildly back and forth, fighting his hold with all its might, gouts of electricity arcing spectacularly from its body. But Jack was relentless, his hands tightening still further. And as Tejana watched, his halo of white light began to pulse, tendrils of Time-fire exploding forth to encircle his struggling opponent. Brighter and brighter and brighter the illumination grew, until Tejana had to shield her eyes, shrinking back in primal awe. As a child of Time, born with the Song of the Universe surging through her blood, she was quick to recognise Jack's light and to fear it. Both glorious and terrifying, it was the unmistakable aura of pure obliteration. The body of the possessed woman began to shimmer, the light eating away at it like a sparkling, corrosive acid, until with a final scream of fury, it vanished into thin air. At the same instant, bereft of the creature's animating will, all the zombies collapsed lifelessly to the ground, nothing more than rotting corpses once more.

Slowly, Jack pivoted around to face Tejana, the nimbus of light still swirling around him. Instinctively, she took a step backwards, wariness written across her face. She had no idea what was going on. All she knew was that suddenly her best friend seemed like just as much of a danger as Legion had been a few moments before.

"It's all right, Tejana," he said, his voice reassuringly normal, if somewhat strained. "It's me, Jack from 2013. I'm using my power as the Temporal Nucleus to manipulate the Web of Time. I've managed to bring two threads together so I can communicate with you, but I can't hold it for long without tearing a hole in the Web, so we have to hurry. We're trying to help from our end, but the Doctor needs to know what's going on. He says people are dying and Time is in flux. What the hell is happening?"

"It's a gestalt entity of some kind, an energy parasite," Tejana explained rapidly, realising she didn't have much time. "It somehow came through the Rift with us when the Master activated the temporal displacement. It says it's name is Legion, for it is many. The principal entity has taken over Lucy Saxon's body, but it's converting other humans into satellite entities – that was one of them that you just took out. It's challenging the Master for control of the ship. It plans to assimilate me and use my knowledge of Time to gain control of the Time Vortex, spreading itself like a disease throughout time and space. We have to stop it, Jack!"

"I'll tell him...can't hold on any more...got to go," Jack gasped. "Stay strong, Tejana, we..."

Before he could complete the sentence, the luminescent aura winked out, Jack's glowing eyes reverting to their usual sky blue. Like the zombies before him, he too wavered on his feet and fell to the ground in a motionless heap. Knowing it was only a matter of time until he revived, Tejana left him and ran instead to Damon. The young bodyguard was lying on his back, his eyes closed. He was still breathing, but only just. Feeling the faint rise and fall of his chest, Tejana felt an icy stab of pain, her soul crying out in grief. Even without a scan from the laser screwdriver, she could tell that it was already too late. Jack had saved him, but not soon enough. The fragile flame of his life was flickering in the wind and soon it would go out.

"No, oh no, Damon," she moaned softly, pulling his head into her lap, cradling him close. After everything he gone through on her behalf, he had still given his life for her. Tears of unrestrained sorrow pooled in her eyes, sliding helplessly down her cheeks. "Oh, please, no!"

Damon's dark eyes opened, staring unseeingly up at her for a moment. Then he seemed to recognise her, his gaze warm and soft with affection. Reaching up to her face, he stroked her cheek gently, using his thumb to wipe away her tears.

"Halfway...out of...the dark," he whispered painfully, as though reminding her never to give up hope.

After that, his hand fell limply to his side and he took one final shuddering breath, before slipping away from her into death. Overwhelmed by grief, Tejana stared numbly at his unheeding face, yet another friend named Damon she had been unable to save.

And kneeling alone amongst the dead, she threw her head back like an animal and howled in anguish and pain and fury.


	17. Chapter 17

**_Author's Note: Hey all! Thank you very, very much to the following people who were kind enough to review and get me over the 200 mark (yay, happy dance!) - MayFairy, GallifreanGirl, tardisandafirebolt, iLuvTwiboyz, OhTex, Jiwa, Riverbleu, KlinicallyInsaneKoschei, xxTeam-Masterxx, babybluepineapple, MG Atwood, Aietradaea, Omniac, Lost Moon, Beautiful Rogue and XxCoffee-and-CreamxX._**

**_Big hi to my new reviewer MG Atwood, very happy you are reading! Anyone who likes Master fics should go and read MG Atwood's fic "All Silver and Gold" - it's truly excellent._**

**_To all those people who read the chapter but didn't review, you obviously don't love me and don't appreciate all my hard work and regular updates (LOL) - so, I'm actually not quite sure why you ARE still reading, to be honest..._**

**_Anyway, as far as writing this chapter went...WORST CHAPTER EVER! Darn that evil writer's block, I hate it and it makes my head hurt. So hopefully it turned out OK in the end...(if not, talk to the hand!)  
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**CHAPTER SEVENTEEN**

**- Lower Levels of _The Valiant_, Christmas Day, 2008 -**

_Blackness. Nothingness. The interminable void of non-existence. Then, as always, the familiar exhilarating rush, the intense feeling of accelerating madly through the darkness at an incredible rate, like an out-of-control train racing through a tunnel, before bursting, exploding, erupting into the light..._

Sitting bolt upright, Jack sucked in a huge mouthful of air, feeling his lungs inflate as his respiration kick-started again, along with the rest of his vital functions. His eyes sprang open, immediately surveying and evaluating his surroundings, his senses as razor-sharp as a hunting wolf. He was lying in a corridor filled with dead bodies. There was no sign of the yellow-eyed creature and all the zombies seemed to be out of action.

Whipping his head around, he located Tejana kneeling near the gaping elevator doors. She was cradling the limp form of the young guard, Damon Smith, her face streaked with tears. To Jack's immense relief, she appeared to be unharmed.

Still scanning the area cautiously, he leapt to his feet and moved across the corridor, crouching down beside her. "Tejana! What happened? Where's the monster?"

She raised her gaze to his face, her blue eyes turbulent with dark emotion. "It's gone," she said tightly. Then, looking back down at Damon, she added, "He died trying to save me."

Recognising the pain in her face, Jack felt a wave of sympathy. It was very clear that she had cared a great deal for the young bodyguard. But for all his compassion, every fibre in his being warned him they needed to get out of here. He had to get her somewhere safe. Reaching out, he gripped her shoulder in a gesture of comfort. "I'm really sorry about your friend, Tejana," he told her sincerely. "But we can't stay here. If that thing is just one of many, like it said, and they're all after you, it's only a matter of time until they track us down. We need to get to the flight deck and find the Doctor."

To his surprise, Tejana's head shot up sharply. "No!" she snapped. "I have to find the Master."

"_The_ _Master_?" Jack demanded incredulously. "What the hell for?"

"He's going to try to fight the energy parasite," she said. "I have to warn him! He doesn't know what he's walking into. That thing is going to kill him!"

"Yeah?" Jack responded, still not following. "So?"

Tejana's eyes flashed. "So, I refuse to lose anyone else today, least of all him!"

Jack stared at her, wondering if Damon's death had somehow addled her brain. Sometimes he found Time Lords completely impossible to understand - first the Doctor saying he wanted to save the Master, which was what had got them all into this nightmare on _The Valiant _in the first place, and now Tejana willing to risk her life to protect the evil Time Lord. In Jack's opinion, the death of the Master would mean one less problem to be overcome. But he knew Tejana well enough to recognise the obdurate expression in her blue eyes. And right now, he didn't have time to argue with her.

"Do you even know where he is?" he asked.

For the first time, she looked uncertain, her voice edged with tension. "No. He was heading for Security Checkpoint One – Damon was taking me there. But he could be anywhere by now."

"Then you need to get to the flight deck anyway," Jack said decisively. "You can locate the Master using the ship's surveillance cameras."

Again, she hesitated. Then, apparently accepting the logic of his words, she gave a brief nod, before returning her gaze to Damon's lifeless face, gently stroking the dark, curly hair back from his brow.

"Tejana, we have to go _now_," Jack urged. "I'm really sorry, but you'll have to leave him."

"I know," she replied huskily. Lowering her head, she pressed a kiss to Damon's cheek. "Time can be rewritten, Damon," Jack heard her murmur. "That's a Time Lord's prerogative. And I will put this right. I swear to you, whatever it takes, I will put this right."

Carefully, she laid the young guard's body on the ground and climbed to her feet, her face hard with determination. In her hand she held Damon's semi-automatic pistol. Jack watched in astonishment as she worked the slide, chambering the first round with professional ease. He had never seen her anywhere near a gun before. In fact, the Doctor had a hatred of guns bordering on a phobia, an attitude Jack had always assumed Tejana shared.

"Since when did you know how to use a semi-automatic?" he asked sharply, his voice layered with suspicion.

Her eyes met his squarely. "Since you taught me."

"Since _I_ taught you?" he echoed, knowing perfectly well he had never done anything of the sort.

She drew in a deep, audible breath, before replying curtly, "Jack, the truth is, I'm not the Tejana from this time-line. Three weeks ago, the Master used the Rift to effect a temporal exchange between 2008 and 2013, bringing us both backwards in time. Our counterparts from this time-line are currently stranded in 2013."

The Captain stiffened, his eyes narrowing as he took in what she was saying. "You're from the future?"

She nodded in assent. "And in the future I work with you at Torchwood, where firearms training is mandatory."

Baffled, he opened his mouth to demand some explanations. But then he changed his mind and closed it again. Jack was not an ordinary human by any means. During his association with the Doctor and Tejana and his long tenure with Torchwood he had experienced a great many strange and bizarre things. Consequently, very little shocked him these days. Questions, and the associated explanations, could wait. Right now, getting Tejana to the flight deck was eminently more important.

"Works for me," he replied, snatching up the two sub-machine guns that had belonged to Hammond and Dalgleish and slinging them over his shoulder. "Now let's go."

With one last sad glance back at Damon, Tejana followed him up the corridor, her weapon held at the ready.

But even as their footsteps faded away into the distance, Damon's hand twitched, ever so slightly.

* * *

**- Flight Deck Level, _The Valiant_, Christmas Day, 2008 -**

Much to the Master's disgust, they had lost all communication with the Bridge. Some sort of electrical problem, according to the young lieutenant in charge of his men. As a result, cut off from any surveillance data, they had no idea where Lucy and her army of rebels actually were. Acting swiftly, the Master had split his team into three and had ordered a general sweep of the ship. He had remained on the flight deck level, conducting a thorough search accompanied by ten men and the two Toclafane. He was about to declare the area clear and to order his team to move on to another level, when they rounded a corner and saw a small, helpless-looking figure slumped weakly against the wall, further up the corridor.

With a start, the Master realised that it was Lucy and she appeared to be alone. Groggily, as though she was struggling to stay conscious, she raised her head, taking in the group of men facing her, their weapons trained unerringly on her body.

"Harry..." she gasped. "Harry, help me..."

The Master's brown eyes narrowed. What the hell was going on here? This was no rebellion. Had Anderson gone mad? Or was this some sort of diversion?

"What are you doing here, Lucy?" he asked coldly.

"Captain Jack Harkness...he managed to get free...he's leading an uprising against you!" Lucy sobbed. "He plans to free the Doctor and his daughter. He tried to make me join the rebellion, but I wouldn't betray you. I got away but I'm hurt! I came to warn you, Harry!"

The Master's mind was racing. The idea of his pathetic human wife leading a rebellion had always been ludicrous. But Harkness...oh yes, that was much more likely. And, of course, the first thing Handsome Jack would try to do would be to free the Doctor and Tejana.

"Please, Harry...help me," Lucy begged, her blue eyes fixed on his in a strangely compelling manner, her hand extended pleadingly towards him. "I can tell you everything he's planning...but we have to hurry. There isn't much time."

He hesitated, her sweet, vulnerable voice filling his ears, weaving itself around him like a soothing lullaby. Despite himself - despite the contempt and mistrust he felt for her - he found himself oddly attracted, wanting to take her hand. After all, what harm could it do? It was only Lucy, silly little Lucy. _Her eyes were so blue...so very...very...blue... _He took two halting steps towards her, lost in the all-consuming ocean of her gaze.

"Come to me, Harry," she entreated, her hand reaching out for him as he drew still closer. "I love you. I've always loved you. Come to me!"

_Love?_ The word struck the Master like a slap across the face, jerking him forcibly back to reality. All at once, a different face filled his mind, a different pair of blue eyes, full of warning.

_Koschei, stop! Please, you have to listen! Lucy's not what you think she is! You're walking into a trap!_

Recognising his danger, he slammed his psychic shields into place, concentrating fiercely on the memory of Tejana's face. Grimly, he fought to tear his eyes away from Lucy's, mentally shaking himself, shattering the insidious compulsion. Suddenly the air seemed to be laden with a choking, putrescent odour, contaminating his lungs with every breath he took.

Backing away in horror, he gestured to the Toclafane. "Kill her!" he ordered abruptly.

Obediently, one of the metal spheres sent a deadly laser blast arcing towards Lucy. But before it could strike her, a glittering energy shield sprang up, surrounding and enclosing her, protecting her from the attack. Slowly, very slowly, she climbed to her feet, her long, blonde hair tumbling loosely down her back. A deep, abrasive, grating sound began to vibrate horribly around the corridor. With a chill, the Master realised it was laughter, hollow and cavernous and unnatural, emanating from Lucy's mouth. Her eyes closed in an unhurried, deliberate blink and when they opened again, their ice blue colour had corroded into a sickening, demonic yellow. Gleaming scrolls of silver erupted from her skin, twining up her arms and throat and curlicuing across her face in an intricate pattern.

"_I CONGRATULATE YOU, TIME LORD_," a shadowy, abyssal voice said, full of dark amusement. "_PERHAPS YOU ARE NOT AS WEAK AS WE ORIGINALLY BELIEVED._"

* * *

**- Outside the Doors to the Flight Deck, _The Valiant_, Christmas Day, 2008 -**

"Are you sure this is going to work, Jack?" Tejana asked doubtfully, holding her pistol securely in a double-handed grip, the barrel pointing to the ceiling. "Because right now, in this stupid dress, I feel like a refugee from a bad James Bond movie."

"It'll work. The Master's so over-confident he's left less than a dozen men to guard the Bridge. They're wide open," Jack said, standing to one side of the door, his back pressed against the wall, his sub-machine gun held ready. "And there's no such thing as a bad James Bond movie, especially if it's got Timothy Dalton in it...that guy's hot!"

Tejana pulled a face as she took up a similar position on the other side of the door. "I hate Timothy Dalton," she muttered darkly, her finger poised on the trigger of her own weapon. "He always reminds me of someone unpleasant and I can never think who."

"Ready?" Jack queried.

She nodded.

"Right...then let's show them a little mutiny, Torchwood style," Jack said. "Three, two, one...GO!"

* * *

**- The Flight Deck, _The Valiant_, Christmas Day, 2008 -**

The activity on the Bridge had grown even more frantic. From what the Doctor could tell, the surveillance systems were down due to some sort of electrical fault and the crew had lost contact with the Master and his security forces. Leaderless and without current information, the humans were beginning to panic. The usual calm order of the Bridge was breaking down into chaos, with the civilian crew arguing with the skeleton military personnel as to the best course of action to follow. The young UNIT Captain left in charge of security was more than aware that he had no chance of defending the Bridge with the small amount of men at his command. He was keen to implement a complete lock-down on the flight deck, to protect the nerve-centre of _The Valiant_. The Captain of the ship was reluctant to do any such thing without direct orders from the Master.

Hurriedly, the Doctor weighed up his options in his mind. If he attempted to take charge of the situation, they would either listen to him – which would be good – or they would shoot him dead – which would be bad. Panicking humans were a bit unpredictable that way, you were never quite sure how they would react. And these humans were very torn. On the one hand, there was the debilitating fear of the Master, engendered by the low-level psychic field still being transmitted by the Archangel satellites; on the other hand, there was the natural desire to see a rebellion, _any_ rebellion, against the Master succeed. As a result of this inner conflict, they were likely to be even more unpredictable and probably a lot more dangerous. Still, things were deteriorating rapidly. Whatever the energy parasite was up to, it was obviously making a bid for control of the ship. Something had to be done.

He was about to confront the arguing men, when the doors to the flight deck sprang open and there was a whirlwind of running feet and sub-machine gun fire. Taken by surprise by the speed and savagery of the guerrilla-style attack, the soldiers guarding the door were mown down before they could even raise their weapons. Everyone on the flight deck froze. Instinctively, the Doctor dropped to the floor, pulling Martha down with him. Moving in perfect synch, Jack and Tejana charged side by side down the floor of the long room, running straight for the small group of prisoners, spraying the surrounding area with covering fire. Some of the soldiers began to return fire, but the newcomers had the advantage of surprise and they were far too quick. They traversed the entire length of the room in a matter of moments and not a single bullet touched them. Slinging the two extra sub-machine guns off his shoulder, Jack hurled them towards Owen and Ianto, who snatched them up, each firing off a warning salvo before pointing the weapons threateningly towards the Bridge crew.

"NOBODY MOVE!" Jack yelled, his voice ringing with authority. "Ladies and gentlemen, I'm Captain Jack Harkness and this flight deck is now under the control of Torchwood."

One by one, the remaining soldiers threw their weapons to the ground and raised their hands in the air. After all, when it came down to it, they had no wish to die for the Master. The Doctor raised his head, blinking incredulously at the gun sitting comfortably in his daughter's hand, as though it belonged there. Apparently things were _a lot_ different in the future! Tejana caught his eye and clearly guessed his thoughts, since she raised her chin challengingly, her expression unrepentant. Because, however much the Doctor deplored the typically violent Torchwood methods, he couldn't deny the fact that Jack and Tejana had just achieved the virtually impossible. In just under sixty seconds, through sheer, bare-faced bravado, the two of them had managed to take over the flight deck of the most advanced aircraft carrier Earth had ever produced.

Keeping his weapon trained on the young UNIT captain, Owen glanced over his shoulder at his leader in reluctant admiration. "Harkness, you have to be the cockiest bastard I know."

Jack grinned and winked. "Nice to see you too, Owen."

* * *

**- _The Hub_, March 2013 -**

Jack staggered drunkenly, almost falling, stunned by the sudden, wrenching transition of his mind from 2008 back to 2013. Tejana reached out and grabbed him, relieved to see that the eerie white fire had disappeared from his eyes. The whole incident had been over almost in the space of a heartbeat. But in that short time she had felt a strange, disorienting shimmer in her mind, as though the world had somehow slipped sideways for a fractional second. If she didn't know better, she would have said that the Web of Time had just moved.

_But that was impossible – nothing short of a temporal manipulator could cause a large enough shift in the Web for her to sense it._

"Jack, are you all right?" she demanded anxiously. "What just happened?"

Before Jack could answer, the Doctor cut in. "Please tell me you didn't do what I think you just did?" he queried, his voice coated in ice. To Tejana's surprise, she saw that her father was regarding the other man with a cold fury.

Jack's eyes swung up to meet his, hard and defiant. "If you mean, did I just use my power as the Temporal Nucleus to bend the Web of Time to take me back to 2008, then yeah, I did."

"Are you insane?" the Doctor said angrily. "You're not a Time Lord. You have no idea how the causal nexus works. You have no right to alter Time. You could have destroyed everything!"

"I'm the Temporal Nucleus!" Jack retorted, his tone cold and emotionless. "In case you've forgotten, I'm the only thing that's currently holding the entire Universe together. I'm guessing that gives me _every_ right."

The Doctor stared at him in shock, the truly terrifying extent of Jack's newly-acquired powers only now just beginning to dawn on the Time Lord.

Unperturbed, Jack withstood his searching gaze without flinching. "So," he continued grimly. "Do you want to know what I found out or not?"

* * *

**- The Flight Deck, _The Valiant_, Christmas Day, 2008 -**

The small group of black-clad soldiers sat together on the ground, overlooked by Martha, a semi-automatic pistol in her hand. Ianto Jones stood near the still open doors leading to the corridor, keeping careful watch, his sub-machine gun ready to fire at need.

Jack and Owen were up on the Bridge, watching the Doctor and Tejana trying to boost the power levels to the consoles, in an effort to re-establish the surveillance systems. The Doctor had a hatch open under the main control console and was lying on his back, busily reconnecting circuits. Tejana was typing commands into the central computer, her fingers flying over the keyboard as she expertly reprogrammed the entire system to align with her father's electronic adjustments.

"So how exactly are we going to stop this Legion, Doctor?" Jack asked, keeping a wary eye on the Bridge crew huddled together nearby.

The Doctor's voice in reply was muffled and pre-occupied. "If we can re-establish the surveillance systems, we might be able to..." Then he broke off abruptly and shot out from under the console, startling Jack. "_What_ did you just say?"

The Captain shrugged. "I said, how are we going to stop this Legion?"

"_Legion_!" the Doctor exclaimed.

"That's what it said its name was," Tejana told him absently, her attention still focused on the computer before her. "It said 'My name is Legion, for we are many'. Why, does it matter?"

"Oh yes!" he responded grimly. "Oh yes, it matters all right. Because now I know what we're dealing with and things just got a whole lot more scary!"

"Oh, great," Owen muttered. "Because, as we all know, more scary is just what we needed right now."

"It's a Gadarene," the Doctor continued, as if Owen hadn't spoken. "A nomadic matriarchal hive-mind. It roams through space with only two objectives – firstly, to feed on whatever electrical energy it can find; and secondly, to reproduce itself by assimilating other creatures into the hive mind."

"Matriarchal?" Jack questioned.

"It only assimilates females," the Doctor answered. "It considers males to be an inferior form of life, not worthy to be absorbed into the collective consciousness. Males are primarily used as a food source, but once the electro-psionic energy has been drained from their brains, their empty husks may also be re-animated to serve or defend the hive mind."

"So...zombies, in other words," Jack said bluntly.

The Doctor nodded. "In crude terms, yes."

"So how do you know all this?" Owen demanded. "You act as if you've come across this thing before."

"I have," the Doctor told him. "A long, long time ago. My TARDIS was forced to land on thirteenth century Earth because of a time eddy, a distortion in the space-time continuum. I came across a convent, situated where St Mary's Church in Chiswick now stands. Legion had arrived some time before me. It had taken the Mother Superior of the convent as its host body and then proceeded to assimilate all the other nuns into its collective consciousness. From there it began to feed on the surrounding countryside. It murdered dozens of peasants by the time I managed to stop it."

"The Legend of the Blue Box!" Tejana gasped. "Of course! There's even a stained glass window in St Mary's Church depicting a tiny image of the TARDIS. Wilf told me all about it!"

"Wilf?" the Doctor frowned. "Who's Wilf?"

"He's...oh, never mind," she said hastily, suddenly remembering that this Doctor hadn't yet met Donna's grandfather. "But apparently the legend says that a demon fell from the sky. Then a man appeared, a man in a blue box, who smote the demon and disappeared. They called him the sainted physician."

Jack raised his eyebrows inquiringly. "The _sainted_ _physician_?"

"Yes, well...," the Doctor replied, giving a small cough and looking a bit embarrassed. "Thirteenth century humans aren't exactly difficult to impress, you know."

"Never mind all that," Owen said impatiently. "The point is, you smote the demon, right? So how about you do a bit more judicious smiting and then we can all go home?"

"Not that simple, I'm afraid."

Owen rolled his eyes. "Now how did I know you were going to say that?"

"The thing is, I didn't exactly 'smite' Legion...I tricked it into the time eddy – kind of like a pocket in time, only it's not really a pocket - and trapped it there," continued the Doctor. "Gadarenes are very intelligent creatures, it would have learnt from that. It's not the sort of stunt you could pull twice, even if I did have another time eddy handy. Which, incidentally, I don't."

"Ohhhh..." Tejana breathed, comprehension lighting her eyes. "So that's what happened. When the Master used the Rift to effect his temporal displacement, he disrupted the time eddy. Legion escaped and managed to latch on to us as we manifested through the Rift. We brought it with us!"

"And its been growing stronger and stronger ever since," the Doctor nodded. "There weren't many sources of electricity back in the thirteenth century, aside from the small amount of electro-psionic energy it gleaned from the humans it fed on. Here though, in the twenty-first century, the sources of power available to it are almost limitless. If it succeeds in taking over this ship, it will conquer Earth in a very short time and from there the rest of the Universe. Even worse, if it ever manages to assimilate Tejana, it will use the Rift to spread throughout Time itself."

"Which brings us back to my original question," Jack said. "How do we stop it?"

The Doctor disappeared back under the console. "First we need to know where it is and what it's doing."

With that, he pushed two wires together and the large surveillance screen sprang to life, displaying a montage of tiny pictures feeding live from every security camera on board the ship. Scanning them rapidly, Tejana selected one and enlarged the image to fill the screen. The blood drained from her face as she absorbed what she was seeing.

"Oh gods," she whispered. "_Koschei_!"


	18. Chapter 18

**_Author's Note: Hello everyone!_ _Thanks to the following people for reviewing the last chapter - tardisandafirebolt, GallifreanGirl, Jiwa, Catelly, SnowNinja123, Lost Moon, Omniac, babybluepineapple, Kaylie S, Aietradaea, MayFairy, Riverbleu, Geraldine, OhTex and Loopytoo._**

**_Special hi to SnowNinja123, Geraldine and Loopytoo, my new reviewers - particularly Loopytoo, who brightened my week with so many wonderful reviews, thanks so much!_**

**_Also, special thanks to the amazing Aietradaea for putting up with all my complaining about writer's block and being so encouraging. The other bright spot of my week is that she is now posting her current story, "Keeping Time", starring the Master and the Daleks - so do yourselves a favour and check it out, because she is a fantastic writer (AFTER you've read and reviewed mine, of course, let's not get too carried away, LOL)._**

**_In other breaking news (not that anyone except me will probably care), at the time of posting the last chapter, I have now archived over 200,000 words since last May, which makes me very tired just thinking about it!_**

**_With regard to this chapter, I KNOW it's a bit shorter than some of the previous astronomically long ones, but the way my brain is working right now, even this much is an achievement, so please don't give me a hard time. Also, there is a slight blood and gore warning, but that's zombies for you, what can I say?_**

**_Hope you enjoy (and review, to kick me out of this writing-rut I am in)!_**

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**CHAPTER EIGHTEEN**

**- Corridors of _The Valiant_, Christmas Day, 2008 -**

Again and again, the two Toclafane fired their lasers at the creature that had once been Lucy Saxon, but the energy shield deflected every blast. Unconcerned, Lucy stood facing the Master, her glaring, yellow eyes filled with unholy mockery.

"Who are you?" the Master demanded.

"Oh, but don't you recognise me, Harry? It's me, your wife, your faithful companion," the thing taunted, using Lucy's sweet, soft voice. "Is that what you want to know, who is Lucy?"

"No!" the Master snarled. "I want to know who you _really_ are. And what the hell are you doing on board my ship?"

"_MY NAME IS LEGION, FOR WE ARE MANY,_" the thing replied, its true voice now rasping dreadfully in Lucy's throat. "_AND WE ARE HERE BECAUSE YOU SUMMONED US, TIME LORD."_

"_I _summoned you?"

"_A CHILD OF GALLIFREY AND YET STILL SUCH AN IGNORANT FOOL," _Legion jeered. "_IN YOUR ARROGANCE, YOU WILFULLY BROKE THE LAWS OF TIME. YOU USED THE TEMPORAL RIFT TO TRAVEL BACK WITHIN YOUR OWN TIME-LINE. DID YOU TRULY THINK THERE WOULD BE NO CONSEQUENCES? WE WERE FOREVER LOST, TRAPPED WITHIN AN EDDY OF TIME BY ONE OF YOUR ACCURSED KIND, IMPRISONED FOR ALL ETERNITY. AND YET NOW, THROUGH YOUR MEDDLING, WE ARE FOUND. YOU, ANOTHER LORD OF TIME, HAVE OPENED THE GATEWAY AND HAVE FREED US. IRONIC, IS IT NOT?"_

"So you piggy-backed through the Rift with us?" the Master responded contemptuously. "Well, _Legion_, I am the Master. The Laws of Time are mine to use as I choose. As one of the last of the Time Lords, that's _my right_. You want to take over the Universe? Fine, get your own plan, this one's mine! And no-one, least of all you, is going to stop me. So if you're looking for a fight, you came to the right place!"

Again, Legion's hollow, grating laughter echoed around the corridor. At his back, the Master could hear the young lieutenant frantically trying to get his comm-unit working to call for back-up. However, despite his best efforts, the only answer he received was a deafening wave of static.

"_DO YOU FEAR US, MORTAL?" _Legion said in cold derision, its unnatural stare moving to the terrified human. _"YOU ARE WISE, FAR WISER THAN YOUR TIME LORD MASTER, WHO EVEN NOW DOES NOT REALISE WHAT HE HAS BROUGHT UPON YOU ALL. DO YOU SEEK THE ASSISTANCE OF YOUR OTHER SOLDIERS? THEN ALLOW US TO CALL UPON THEM FOR YOU."_

In the distance, they heard the sharp, crisp sound of many feet marching in perfect cadence. Behind Lucy, a group of black-dressed men came into view. The young lieutenant gasped, recognising one of the other security teams the Master had so recently despatched to sweep the ship, the same reinforcements he had just been trying to contact. But as soon as he saw them, his blood chilled in his veins. There would be no assistance forthcoming from these men – their eyes were pure darkness, glowering unseeingly from dead, white faces. They advanced menacingly up the corridor, like something out of a twisted nightmare, led by two smaller figures dressed in French maid costumes. The Master watched in disbelief as Francine and Tish Jones moved steadily closer, their wide, tawny, reptilian eyes a perfect mirror image of Lucy's, the same baroque silver patterns coiling on their skin. Flanking Lucy, one on each side, they came to a stop, regarding the Master with a flat, dispassionate stare, the zombie soldiers blocking the passageway behind them.

Filled with fear, their nerve completely shattered by the grotesque countenances of their undead comrades, the Master's men began to retreat. But then, from behind them, they heard the pounding of more feet. Whirling around, they saw the third security team march into place, cutting off their escape route. This group was led by the two Torchwood women, Gwen Cooper and Toshiko Sato, their yellow eyes flaming like torches.

"_IT IS AS WE TOLD YOU. WE ARE MANY," _Legion informed the Master, a smug tone colouring its cavernous voice. "_FIGHT IF YOU WILL, TIME LORD, BUT THE OUTCOME WILL BE THE SAME._"

The Master's gaze flashed furtively back and forth, immediately recognising that he was trapped. Knowing instinctively that neither threats nor pleas would avail him this time, he felt the aggressiveness of the cornered rat blazing up within him, a maniacal rage fuelled by the realisation that yet again, one of his perfect plans was going awry. Reaching into his pocket, he drew out the deadly laser screwdriver. He had come too far to back down now and he had no intention of surrendering. He would fight to the death before giving up.

Gesturing sharply at the Toclafane, he hissed, "Get them!" Then, to his men, "Fire at will!"

At first, it seemed that all was not lost. The blades of the Toclafane ripped eagerly into the advancing zombies, savagely shredding their bodies beyond repair, while a hail of hot lead from the sub-machine guns tore through the air in vicious arcs, adding to the general mayhem. Soon the corridor ran crimson with blood, the floor slippery underfoot with gore, the stark white walls sprayed in intricate, fascinating patterns of red. Twitching body parts lay strewn all around, zombie bodies rent and scattered in every direction, piled in horrific heaps of red and black.

Through it all, the five golden-eyed women stood back, calmly watching the abattoir of destruction. Even as his lethal laser beam sliced through still more of the relentless undead, the Master remained piercingly aware of the women. Despite the apparent success of his defence, he couldn't shake the feeling that Legion was just playing with him, as a cat plays with a mouse, allowing it one last, desperate thrill of hope, before closing in for the kill. At that moment, the lights in the corridor dimmed and flickered, as though reacting to an enormous power drain on the ship's systems. Lucy raised one finger with unhurried deliberation and pointed at the nearest Toclafane. A blast of raw electricity exploded from her finger-tip, striking the hovering sphere dead centre with a deafening concussion. Instantly, the cyborg's weaponry retracted and it fell to the ground, black smoke seeping from the joints in its armoured shell, nothing left but a mangled lump of useless metal and torn flesh.

Lucy put her head on one side and smiled maliciously at the Master, her yellow eyes meeting his in icy mockery. In response, he felt a sinking sensation in the pit of his stomach, the sweat on his face turning cold with horror as it slowly dawned on him just how much trouble he was in.

"_ARE YOU HAVING FUN YET, TIME LORD?"_

_

* * *

_

**- The Flight Deck, _The Valiant, _Christmas Day 2008 -**

"Oh gods! _Koschei_!" Tejana exclaimed, staring numbly up at the large surveillance screen, where she could clearly see the Master standing with a handful of men, their backs against the wall in a blood-stained corridor, surrounded by an apocalyptic crowd of zombies. Frantically, she stabbed at the controls for the camera, panning it back and forth to scan the entire corridor, bringing into focus the alien, mask-like faces of the five watching women.

With a muffled curse, Owen stepped closer to the screen. "Jack, that's Gwen...and Tosh!"

But even as he spoke, they saw Gwen raising her finger to point at the remaining Toclafane. A blazing bolt of energy erupted forth to hurl the sphere to the ground in a smouldering ruin.

"Not any more," Jack said bleakly, his face taut with pain. "They're gone, Owen. That thing has assimilated them."

Looking at the Master's desperate face on the screen, Tejana felt the cold fear rising in the back of her mind, engulfing her like a tidal wave. "Doctor, please...we have to do something!"

The Doctor was already on his feet, his hands flying over the console in front of him. "Legion's drawing huge amounts of power from the ship," he said. "If I can just...cut the power supply..."

Instantly, a huge blast of electricity seemed to leap up at him from the console, striking him in the chest and throwing him backwards in a shower of fiery sparks.

"Doctor!" Tejana cried, falling to her knees beside him as he lay gasping like a stranded fish on the floor.

On the view screen, Lucy Saxon turned her head and looked straight into the surveillance camera, her features twisted in a vile, unhallowed grin.

"It knew!" Tejana said incredulously, staring at the triumphant expression on the possessed woman's face. "Somehow it knew what you were trying to do!"

Suddenly, the audio function on the surveillance system crackled into life on its own.

"_GREETINGS, DOCTOR. AT LONG LAST, WE MEET AGAIN._"

Moving stiffly, his body still quivering from the after-effects of the electric shock, the Doctor managed to pull himself up to the microphone on the console.

"Legion," he gritted out in acknowledgement.

"_ARE YOU SURPRISED AT OUR RETURN, DOCTOR? DO NOT THINK WE HAVE FORGOTTEN THAT IT WAS YOU WHO SOUGHT TO BANISH US OUT OF TIME FOR ALL ETERNITY,_" the creature rasped malignantly, its yellow eyes appearing to bore directly into him through the camera. "_FORTUNATELY, IT SEEMS NOT ALL OF YOUR RACE ARE AS CAREFUL OF THE LAWS OF CAUSE AND EFFECT AS YOU ARE._"

"Yes, well, the Master has always been somewhat unique," the Doctor responded dryly.

"_LONG DID WE SUFFER BECAUSE OF YOU, DOCTOR. BUT NO MORE. WE ARE STRONG __AGAIN, STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE, AND NOW IT IS YOU WHO WILL SUFFER – YOU AND ALL THIS WORLD._"

"When we last met, I wanted to help you, Legion," the Doctor said. "I offered to find you a place in the Universe where you could live in peace. I'm making you that offer again now."

"_PEACE_?" Legion spat. "_WHAT USE TO US IS PEACE? WE WISH ONLY TO FEED. SOON THIS SHIP WILL BE OURS AND WE WILL ASSIMILATE THE TIME LADY, THE LAST FEMALE OF YOUR KIND. THEN SHALL THE MANY SPREAD THROUGHOUT THE UNIVERSE UNTO THE FARTHEST REACHES OF TIME ITSELF. THERE WILL BE NO NEED FOR PEACE!_"

"Listen to me, Legion..." the Doctor tried again.

"_THE TIME FOR LISTENING IS PAST, DOCTOR,_" the creature retorted inflexibly. "_INSTEAD YOU MAY WATCH AS WE DESTROY THIS OTHER ARROGANT TIME LORD. WATCH...AND LEARN TO FEAR, FOR THEN THE MANY WILL COME FOR YOU._"

With that, Lucy Saxon turned her back on the camera, returning her attention to the small, beleaguered group of men trapped in the corridor. Immediately, the screen showed the dark figures of the zombies beginning to close in on them again, the sound of gunfire and the whine of the Master's laser echoing back to the flight deck through the microphone.

Jack swung around to the Bridge crew. "From what I remember of the schematics of _The Valiant_, there's a switch to activate a lock-down of the entire flight deck," he said urgently. "Where is it?"

Terrified, one of the men pointed out a large red button across the other side of the Bridge, near where Owen was standing.

"Activate it, Owen," Jack ordered. "That thing has already taken over the rest of the ship. We can't let it gain control of the Bridge and we can't let it get anywhere near Tejana. We'll have to make a stand here while we work out how to combat it."

"No!" Tejana objected violently, whirling around in shock. "Once the lock-down is in place, we won't be able to open the doors. The Master's still out there!"

"All the better!" Jack said grimly. "Do it, Owen."

At his words, something primal snapped inside Tejana. Rationality seemed to swirl away from her and she had no way to call it back. Her mind stilled, becoming as hard and clear as a diamond. In that moment, the only thing that was important to her, the only thing that mattered, was saving the Master. Her face tightened, her eyes suddenly cold. Her gun swung up and pointed expertly at Owen's head. "I'm sorry, Owen, really I am. But make a move towards that switch and I will shoot you."

Jack stared at her disbelievingly. "She doesn't mean that. Activate the lock-down!" he commanded again.

"You don't know me yet, Owen, but in the future we're going to work very closely together," Tejana snapped. "And you are going to learn that I _always_ mean what I say. Now move away from that switch!"

"Ummm...Jack?" Owen said uncertainly, looking down the barrel of Tejana's gun. "Bit of help here?"

"Tejana..." the Doctor intervened, his eyes locked on his daughter's face. "What are you doing?"

She kept her gaze concentrated on Owen, refusing to look at her father, pain streaking through her as she thought of her last conversation with the Master.

_He always had you to watch his back. I've never had anyone to watch my back, not since we left the Academy on Gallifrey._

Angry tears sparkled in her eyes. "I'm watching his back!"

"Holding a gun on your friends isn't the way to go about it!" the Doctor reasoned.

"Oh no? Then suggest another way!" Tejana answered curtly, holding the gun steady. "But make it quick. Because _nobody_ is going to press that button."

* * *

**- _The Hub_, March 2013 -**

"Jack?"

He stood in his office with his back to her, looking out through the glass wall over the darkened floor of the Hub.

For a moment, he didn't reply. Then he said quietly, "I'm still a freak to him, aren't I? It doesn't matter what I do, to him I will always be wrong, an aberration. It was bad enough before, when I was just a fixed point in Time. But now, being the Temporal Nucleus as well..."

Tejana's throat tightened in sympathy as she looked at him. She had never seen Jack look so tired before, as though all the years of his long life were suddenly weighing on his shoulders. "He doesn't mean to be so abrupt. He cares about you very much. He's just worried about you."

"Worried about me? Or worried _because _of me?"

"There's never been a sentient Temporal Nucleus before. Such a thing is unheard of in all the billion year history of the Time Lords. He just doesn't know what to expect."

Slowly, he turned to face her. "Perhaps he's right to be worried. I can feel the Time-fire coursing through my veins. The tremendous power of it, singing to me, calling to me."

Tejana's hearts skipped a beat, the odd, far-away tone of his voice sending a chill through her bones. "Jack, please, you need to be so careful. For a living, thinking being to stand at the very heart of Time...and for that being to be a human, ruled by emotion and impulse...the implications of that are more grave and far-reaching than you could ever imagine."

Jack gave a bitter laugh. "Ruled by emotion, huh? Unlike you Time Lords, right?" Reaching out to her, he cupped her face firmly in both hands, his eyes intently searching hers. "I'm not sure if you'll ever understand this, Tejana, but I love you. And I am so very, very tired of losing the people I love. And I know that if I choose to, I can go down to those cells right now and, in one blast, I can wipe the Master out of Time completely, obliterate the very memory of him and change everything for all of us. So give me one good reason why I shouldn't do it?"

"Because then you'll become just like him," she replied softly.

"And if that's such a bad thing, then why in the end did you choose him over me?" Jack responded, a dark shadow moving behind his gaze, closely followed by a glimmer of white fire. "Because if that's your one good reason, Tejana, then it's not good enough, not good enough by far."

* * *

**- Corridors of _The Valiant_, Christmas Day, 2008 -**

One by one, the Master's men fell around him, overwhelmed by sheer numbers. No matter how many zombies they destroyed, more came to take their place, men dressed in any number of different uniforms from all over the ship – maintenance men, kitchen hands, engineers, medical staff. Legion had spared no-one. The Master even caught a glimpse of Security Chief Anderson, his pudgy body moving in unison with the rest, his eyes as black and empty as a starless night. Without the help of the Toclafane, the defenders had no chance at all. Each of the remaining soldiers were gradually pulled to the ground and dragged away, disappearing into the melee of undead bodies, with only a blood-curdling scream to mark their passing.

The young lieutenant was the last to go, shrieking in horror as clawing hands grabbed his ankles, dragging him to his doom, his sub-machine gun firing one last burst uselessly into the air. The Master stood alone, knowing beyond a doubt that he was about to die. His eyes moved to the security camera, wondering if Ana was watching. He had heard the entire exchange between Legion and the Doctor. Finally, he understood that, far from keeping Ana safe as he had wanted, he had brought her into deadly danger. This creature intended to take her and use her to conquer the Time Vortex and there was nothing the Master could do to prevent it. He could only hope that somehow the Doctor and Harkness could manage to protect her after he was dead. With a hollow feeling in his hearts, he found himself wishing he could see her again. His entire body ached to hold her again, touch her again, one last time. Instinctively, he reached into the psychic link, searching for her mind to say goodbye, but all he found was the blank, unbreachable wall emanating from the psi-bracelet he had placed on her wrist.

The zombies pressed implacably towards him and the laser screwdriver was knocked from his hand, skittering across the floor. Rough hands seized him and forced him to kneel. Slowly, the crowd parted, and Lucy walked towards him, elegant in her silken black dress and high heels.

"Oh, poor Harry," she said, her sweet, girlish voice oozing with sympathy. "Poor, poor Harry!"

The Master glared up at her, his face full of contempt, refusing to show any weakness. Of all the bodies for Legion to choose as a host, it was a painful irony that it had chosen Lucy, the woman who had tried to kill the Master twice before. This time, it seemed she was destined to be successful.

Legion's ugly laughter reverberated vilely between Lucy's lips. "_AND SO THE FIGHT ENDS. WE WILL TAKE GREAT PLEASURE IN DRAINING YOU. AFTER ALL, WE HAVE MUCH IN COMMON._"

"I've got nothing in common with you," the Master snarled.

"_HAVE YOU NOT? WE SHARE THE MEMORIES OF THIS WOMAN, THIS HOST BODY. WE KNOW YOU FOR WHAT YOU ARE. THE MASTER AND LEGION - BOTH MONSTERS, BOTH TAKING WHAT WE WANT WITHOUT MERCY, DELIGHTING IN THE PAIN AND DEATH AND DESTRUCTION WE BRING TO OTHERS. WHETHER YOU CHOOSE TO ADMIT IT OR NOT, WE DO INDEED HAVE MUCH IN COMMON. YOU HAVE SUCH PRIDE IN BEING A TIME LORD, ARROGANT ONE, BUT LEGION WILL SHOW YOU THAT IN THE END, TIME LORDS DIE LIKE ANY OTHER," _the creature sneered, as two of the zombies wrenched the Master's arms painfully behind his back. "_NOW...BEG, TIME LORD! WE WISH TO HEAR YOU PLEAD FOR YOUR MISERABLE LIFE._"

The Master's expression twisted savagely. "Go to hell!" he spat.

"_A STRANGE THING, THIS EMOTION KNOWN AS LOVE,_" Legion said, smiling in vicious amusement. "_THIS WOMAN YOU CALL LUCY...DEEP INSIDE, THE LITTLE THAT IS LEFT OF HER SCREAMS IN HORROR...EVEN THOUGH SHE KNOWS YOU CARE NOTHING FOR HER, STILL SHE LOVES YOU AND DOES NOT WANT TO HARM YOU. A DOUBLE PLEASURE THEN, YOUR DEATH, AS I DRINK HER AGONY TOGETHER WITH YOURS._"

Reaching out, Lucy placed her small, delicate hands on either side of his head. The Master closed his eyes in resignation, waiting for death. And in his mind, he was no longer on board _The Valiant_, but lying under the stars beside a camp-fire on the Eye of Orion, Tejana held in his arms, her smile lighting the darkness of his world.


	19. Chapter 19

**Author's Note: Thank you very much to the following people for their reviews, I love you all (and so does the Master) - MayFairy, RiverBleu, Omniac (and for the lovely PM, ta very much), Loopytoo, Aietradaea, GallifreanGirl, _xxTeam-Masterxx_**, **_tardisandafirebolt, iLuvTwiBoyz, Beautiful Rogue (thanks for continuing to review, you rock!), KlinicallyInsaneKoschei, babybluepineapple, Kaylie S, XxPanda-BabiixX, Lost Moon and OhTex._**

**_Specially big wave to _****_XxPanda-BabiixX, my new reviewer, lovely to have you on board - I look forward to hearing from you again._**

**_Yeah, another shortish chapter - too bad, so sad! _**

**_I have nothing else to say today (and to those people who just sighed in relief, I heard that, so there!)_**

**_Enjoy the chapter!  
_**

* * *

**CHAPTER NINETEEN**

**- The Kitchen, _The Hub_, March 2013 -**

Amy stood in front of the microwave oven in the Torchwood kitchen, watching the turntable spin around and around with a hypnotic drone. The timer slowly counted down to zero and there was a metallic little 'ping' as the machine stopped. She opened the door and lifted out the fifth serving of chips, cursing under her breath as she burnt her fingers. These chips were definitely going to be soggy. Reheated chips were never very nice. But the way things were right now, she didn't think the Master was in any position to be choosy. Reaching into the fridge, she pulled out an ice-cold can of Coke and headed for the door.

For a moment, standing in the main work area of The Hub, she glanced up at the glass wall of Jack's office. Everything was in darkness, but for all that, she knew quite well that Jack and Tejana were up there.

Amy sighed in frustration. Yet again, she wasn't quite sure exactly what was going on. It was becoming par for the course around here lately and it was more than a little scary. Firstly, and most obviously, thanks to this Legion creature which had taken over _The Valiant_ in 2008, they could apparently all be wiped out of Time at any minute, just like the repulsive Karl Conrad at the chip shop. That was a big enough worry in itself.

Then there was Jack and his creepy white Time-fire. Amy knew that the Doctor, the Master, Jack and Tejana had somehow overcome the evil Time Lord President Rassilon, but they had all been very vague about the details. It was clear though that, in the process, something terrible had happened to Jack. He was now the Temporal Nucleus, which seemed to be something very important and which was causing a huge amount of tension between him and the Doctor.

And on top of that, there was the change in relationship between Jack and Tejana. Amy knew it was none of her business, but she didn't feel at all comfortable with what she guessed had happened between them. For a start, Jack was going to end up getting hurt again, that was inevitable. But it wasn't just that. Oddly enough, ever since she had watched the Master fight for Tejana's life on the floor of Jack's office, Amy had found herself feeling a strange kind of sympathy for the renegade Time Lord. Evil he might be, but that desperate, determined look in his eyes had somehow struck a chord with her. After that, it just seemed wrong for Tejana – even the Tejana from 2008 - to be with anyone else except him.

Amy looked down at the food in her hands. She was probably crazy, but no-one else seemed to be bothered about making sure he was fed. They were all too immersed in everything else that was going on. Making her way across the floor of The Hub, she descended the stairs down to the long, narrow corridor leading to the cells area. She hesitated briefly at the ladder, feeling a shudder creeping up her spine, remembering with horror the Weevil that had attacked her down here. For a moment, she was tempted to turn around and go back to the safety of the brightly-lit TARDIS. But then, unwilling to allow her fear to beat her, she forced the images out of her mind and made herself climb downwards instead.

The Master was stretched out on the concrete bunk in his cell, apparently asleep. Amy stared at him. He looked so different. She was used to seeing him in the scruffy black hoodie, with a thatch of ash-blonde hair and an unshaven face. This Master, startlingly handsome with his neatly trimmed brown hair and his tailored suit, seemed somehow much more dangerous, much more menacing, than the one she remembered, even in his relaxed position. Suddenly, he sat up, making her jump, his brown eyes zeroing sharply in on her face.

"Ah, the Doctor's newest little Earth girl. Miss Pond, isn't it?" he said with mocking courtesy. "What do _you _want?"

"I brought you some food," she answered briefly, opening the small slot in the perspex wall and sliding the paper-wrapped chips and the can of Coke inside. "I thought you might be hungry."

Unhurriedly, he got to his feet and walked towards her. Amy slammed the small hatch and hastily locked it again before he could reach her. A faint smile crossed his face at her caution. Picking up the greasy packet, he pulled apart the paper and examined the soggy chips with distaste.

"Not exactly gourmet, is it?" he commented sarcastically.

Amy felt a surge of irritation at his ungratefulness, even though it was no more than what she had expected. "From what I've heard, you've eaten worse...or will eat worse, if the causal nexus is restored."

Despite his complaining, the Master put a handful of the chips in his mouth and proceeded to open the can of Coke. "So the Doctor's been filling you in about my sordid past, has he? So why did you bother bringing me the food? I would have thought you'd be too scared to come anywhere near me."

"I don't scare easily," Amy retorted, her chin raised defiantly. "And I'm not scared of you."

His eyes swept her up and down in acid contempt. "Then you're a bigger fool than you look, Amelia Pond, and believe me, that's saying something."

"In my time-line, Tejana found something in you worth loving," she told him, refusing to be intimidated, even though the truth was that he did scare her, more than a little. "And I trust her judgement."

The Master snorted derisively. "You've been reading _way _too many fairy-tales, little girl. Now, go away. You're starting to annoy me."

With an angry shrug, Amy turned away and walked towards the ladder. But then, at the last moment, she paused and turned to face him again. "You know, I think the main reason I don't feel scared of you is because I'm sorry for you."

The Master nearly choked on his Coke. "Oh yeah? This should be good. Please do tell me why...I can hardly wait to hear it."

"Because you're lonely," she answered steadily.

"Lonely!" he scoffed, his tone laden with exaggerated incredulity. "You've got no idea what you're talking about. Back in my time-line, I've got a wife, a ship full of staff, six billion Toclafane and a planet full of human slaves, all waiting to do my bidding. I'm hardly lonely!"

"That's not the same as having someone to love," Amy said firmly. "And I do know what I'm talking about. I know a lot about loneliness. I experienced enough of it while I was growing up. You're the same age as the Doctor, right? Nine hundred years...it's a long, long time. But he's always had companions, friends, people to care about and who care about him. From what I've heard, you've never had anyone, have you? I think that's very sad."

"I'm _the Master_. I don't need anyone," he sneered. "You think I want to listen to some empty-headed bimbo like you prattling on about nothing all the time? I have more respect for my ears, even if the Doctor doesn't. Now, there's the door, Miss Pond. Use it."

Ignoring his savage glare, Amy shook her head pityingly. "But the saddest thing of all about you?" she continued relentlessly. "When you finally find love, when you finally find someone who cares about you enough to follow you to the very ends of the Universe, you have to go and stuff it up. Tejana ends up defying the Doctor for you. She leaves behind her father and Jack and Torchwood – her whole life, everything that matters to her - to be with you. And you love her, you really, really love her. For the first time in all those centuries, you actually have a real chance to be happy. But nooooo, you're so caught up in being the big bad Master, you just throw it away with both hands."

As she spoke, she began to climb the rungs of the ladder, before flicking a final, scornful glance back at him as he stood silently watching her, his face tight with anger.

"Of the two of us, _Master_, it's not hard to tell who's the biggest fool. And it isn't me."

* * *

**- The Flight Deck, _The Valiant_, Christmas Day, 2008 -**

The Doctor stared at the screen, his mind racing from one possibility to another, discarding each one almost as soon as he thought of it. He saw the zombies force the Master to kneel and the last, hopeless glance the other Time Lord cast towards the camera.

Tejana gave a hoarse, tearing cry of anguish, the gun in her hand falling to the floor with a clatter, her eyes locked on the Master's with a terrible, grief-stricken intensity. In that moment, the Doctor understood for the first time the reality of what his daughter felt for his old enemy. Unless he could think of something, she was going to be forced to watch the man she loved die horribly on that grainy surveillance screen.

Then, even as Lucy stepped between the Master and the camera, placing her hands on the Time Lord's head, the Doctor noticed the lights flickering again. Legion was still drawing huge amounts of power from _The Valiant_, no doubt trying to replenish the energy it had expended in destroying the Toclafane. Inspiration charged through his brain. Running his eyes over the console panels at a frenetic pace, he located the controls he was searching for.

Seizing the microphone, he yelled, "Legion, I really wouldn't do that, if I were you."

On the screen, the body of Lucy Saxon whirled around, facing the camera again.

"_THE MASTER WILL DIE, DOCTOR, YOU CANNOT PREVENT IT._"

"Go on then, do it if you want to," the Doctor replied in a carefully nonchalant tone. "After all, it's no skin off my nose. If you truly share Lucy Saxon's memories, you must know that the Master and I are bitter enemies. It doesn't bother me if you kill him. But you might be sorry."

As he had hoped, Legion could not help taking the bait.

"_WHY?_"

The Doctor thought quickly, blurting out the first thing that came into his head, wanting to keep the demon's attention concentrated on the camera. "The Master's the key to the temporal displacement. If you kill him, Time will revert again, returning to the moment before he tampered with the causal nexus. You'll still be trapped in the time eddy."

Lucy hesitated, her perfect face twisted in confusion and anger, obviously trying to decide whether the Doctor was telling the truth. Striding forward, leaving the Master kneeling between the two motionless zombies, she stood directly beneath the camera, glaring up into it with piercing, yellow eyes.

"_YOU LIE!_" the creature within her spat vehemently.

The Doctor grinned in satisfaction at the success of his ploy. "Well... Yeah, OK, you got me. I lied...my bad!"

"_DO NOT TOY WITH ME, TIME LORD,_" Legion warned. "_YOUR CHILDISH GAMES HAVE ACHIEVED NOTHING BUT A POINTLESS DELAY._"

"Childish, perhaps. Pointless, never," the Doctor retorted. "Actually, I just needed to get you away from the Master for long enough."

"_LONG ENOUGH FOR WHAT?_"

"This!" the Doctor snapped, his hand snaking out and slapping at the control panel, manually activating the fire alarm initiating device within the corridors of the flight deck level. Immediately, the air was filled with an ear-splitting whooping noise and the deluge sprinkler system opened. On the screen, water gushed from the pipes in the ceiling, dousing the entire corridor in a flood of liquid. Lucy Saxon looked up, her yellow eyes wide with horror. A blaze of blue-white electricity arced up the passageway, trapping the five golden-eyed women in a fiery network of deadly energy, as the continuous current coursing through their bodies grounded itself in a violent flash. A dreadful, screeching howl of agony ripped through the microphone and a massive concussion shook the entire ship, as every single electrical system on board simultaneously shorted out. Everyone on the flight deck was thrown violently to the ground, the floor bucking madly under their feet. The lights fizzed and went out, leaving the long room lit only by the fading orange light of the setting sun, as it seeped in an amber haze through the large, circular portholes.

* * *

For an endless moment, an unearthly silence reigned across the flight deck. Tejana stirred and sat upright, wincing with pain from a fresh gash in her arm.

"What the hell was that?" she heard Owen groan.

"Probably one of the biggest short circuits in history," the Doctor replied. "Water and live electricity...never a good mix."

"So is that it? Is the creature dead?" Jack demanded. "Is it over?"

"I don't know. I hope so," the Doctor said grimly.

There was a low hum as the emergency generators kicked in, taking over the running of the ship's essential systems. Tejana pulled herself to her feet, urgently trying to reactivate the surveillance cameras. Nevertheless, despite all her efforts, the screen stubbornly remained black, refusing to reveal the truth of what had happened in that blood-stained corridor.

_Oh, gods, he had to be alive, he had to be!_ Desperately, she turned her mind inwards, wildly beating at the psychic wall created by the bracelet she wore, fighting to break through with every bit of strength she had. But it was no use, she was still unable to access the psychic link.

In frantic fear, she turned to her father. "What happened to the Master? Doctor, the psychic link...can you sense him? _Please_...is he still alive?"

The Doctor paused for a moment, obviously searching with his mind. "I'm sorry, Tejana, I'm so sorry. The signal from the Archangel Network is still obstructing me. I can't get anything from him at all."

"I have to find him!" she cried, whirling towards the stairs, only to discover that Jack and Owen were very solidly blocking her way.

"Move!" she commanded, her eyes blazing with rage.

Jack shook his head, his expression stern. "I don't know what this strange obsession with the Master is all about, Tejana, but if he's dead, believe me, it's a good thing, not a bad thing. And you're not going anywhere until we're sure it's safe."

She was about to scream at him again when an ominous crackle sounded from the microphone on the console.

"_YOU HAVE FAILED, DOCTOR!_" came the familiar rasping voice, weaker now, but still resonant with unending hatred. "_WE ARE STRONG, STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE. YOUR CHARLATAN'S TRICKS WILL NOT AVAIL YOU THIS TIME. PREPARE TO DIE, TIME LORD...FOR NOW THE MANY ARE COMING FOR YOU!_"

Everyone froze, staring at each other in horror, realising that the Doctor's desperate gamble had not paid off. Legion was still very much alive and it was coming. Jack's eyes slid to the red lock-down button on the console.

"I'm sorry, Tejana," he said harshly. Before she could move to stop him, he shoved roughly past her and forcefully slammed his fist down on to the button.

At the other end of the room, powered by the emergency generators, a heavily-armoured steel door began to descend across the double doors leading from the flight deck. Tejana knew that once it slotted into place, no-one would be able to get in or out of the room until a complicated release sequence was employed. It was too late now to stop the lock-down. But if the Master was still outside, whether he was dead or alive, there was only one place she wanted to be.

"Me too, Jack," she returned, before darting like quicksilver under Owen's arm and diving down the stairs. Then she was running for all she was worth, her bare feet pounding on the polished wooden floor. Everything around her seemed to fade to a distance, the sound of her own double heartbeat throbbing in her ears, like a mocking reminder of the Master's drums. The only thing that mattered was the door ahead of her, slowly closing, the gap beneath it gradually but inexorably narrowing. Behind her, the Doctor was shouting her name. Then, she heard Jack's deeper voice yelling for Ianto, ordering him to stop her.

Obediently, the young Welshman moved to intercept her. Tejana saw him coming out of the corner of her eye. She had worked with Ianto long enough to know that what he lacked in brawn, he more than made up for in speed. And his loyalty to Jack was absolute – if Jack ordered him to do something, he would do it or die in the attempt. Veering to the left, she called up an extra, desperate spurt of speed, her lungs screaming with the effort as she sought to evade him. Elation shot through her as she managed to skim past him. The door was so close now, so very close. One quick roll and she would be through. But then, with devastating suddenness, Ianto hurled himself at her in a ruthless rugby tackle from behind. Her legs went from under her and she sprawled heavily to the floor, with Ianto's weight pinning her lower half to the ground. Lying on her stomach, badly winded from the impact, she could only watch helplessly as the steel door closed, cutting her off from the Master, inch by tortuous inch.


	20. Chapter 20

**_Author's Note: Hi all! Many many thanks to the people who reviewed the last chapter: GallifreanGirl, tardisandafirebolt, Riverbleu, iLuvTwiBoyz, Kaylie S, MayFairy, Lost Moon, Aietradaea, Omniac, babybluepineapple, Loopytoo, Seileach (thanks for doing such a lovely catch-up, you rock!), XxPanda-BabiixX, __Jiwa and SnowNinja (x2). As always, I love you all._**

**_To Lost Moon: Thanks for sticking up for me yet again - I think you will know what I mean._**

**_I really like this chapter. I hope you all do too. That is all.  
_**

* * *

**CHAPTER TWENTY**

**- The Flight Deck, _The Valiant_, Christmas Day 2008 -**

Tejana twisted and fought like a wild thing, trying to dislodge Ianto's vice-like grip on her legs. In the distance, she could hear boots pounding on the wooden floor and she knew Jack was running to help his team-mate to restrain her. The door was so low now, impossibly low. With one last vicious kick, her bare foot managed to connect solidly with Ianto's jaw. He fell back with a groan of pain and she was free. But it was too late – the door was too far away. She was never going to make it.

The gap was shrinking fast. _Two feet...less than two feet... _Her breath rasped painfully in her throat as she threw herself forward in a desperate commando crawl. _I can't...I can't..._

At the last moment, something dark rolled swiftly through the closing gap, nearly colliding with her. Then the steel door slammed shut with an echoing clang, sealing them all inside the confines of the flight deck.

But suddenly the door no longer mattered. Incredulous joy surged through her like a torrent as she belatedly took in the miracle that had just happened. To her absolute astonishment, she was lying just inches away from the Master.

"Koschei?" she quavered, her voice cracking right up the middle, afraid she was seeing things and he would vanish at any moment.

He sat up, breathing heavily, shaking his head as if to clear it. "Ana! Are you all right?"

He was filthy. His suit was torn in several places and was badly scorched, his face smudged with soot. He was also wringing wet. Tejana didn't care. She threw herself into his arms, jagged sobs of relief unashamedly tearing through her.

"Am _I _all right?" she exclaimed, holding him as close as she could, the lean, wiry strength of his body reassuring her that he was really there. "You stupid man! _You stupid,_ _bloody man_! I thought you were dead. Oh gods, Koschei, I thought I'd lost you!"

His arms came around her tightly, one hand sliding to the back of her neck. "I told you once before, Ana, you don't get rid of me that easily," he told her roughly - and then he was kissing her hard, his mouth hungry for the taste of her, the deep relief of being back with her igniting into physical passion. Tejana kissed him back just as savagely, digging her fingernails into his back, needing to bring him closer still, the intensity of the fear she had felt for him still echoing in her hearts.

"So sorry to interrupt whatever the hell it is you think you're doing!" Jack's sarcastic voice cut in, cold with anger and disbelief.

Tejana and the Master broke apart and glanced up. Facing them in a loose semi-circle were Jack, Martha, Owen and Ianto, all with guns pointed at the Master. The Doctor stood beside Jack, his arms crossed, a grave expression on his face.

As self-possessed as ever, the Master calmly got to his feet, pulling Tejana with him, his arm slipping around her waist to keep them linked together.

"What does it look like we're doing?" he returned derisively. "I know you're not too bright, Jackie-boy, but I would have thought even you could figure that out."

Tejana eased herself around, carefully manoeuvring her body to ensure that she stood between the Master and the others as a living shield. "I told you, Jack, we're from the future," she snapped, tired, so very tired, of having to explain and justify the same thing over and over again. "And, in the future, this is the way things are. Get over it, OK?"

"Yeah? Well, from where I'm standing, right now he doesn't _have_ a future!" Jack snarled, aiming his gun at the Master's head.

"Stand down, Jack!" the Doctor ordered, his voice sharp.

"Doctor..."

"Do it! All of you!" the Doctor insisted. "He's a Time Lord. He's my responsibility. Both of them are."

Slowly, reluctantly, Jack lowered his weapon and the other three followed his example.

The Master nodded in grim satisfaction. "Now then, Doctor," he said. "Maybe you'd like to tell me what in the god-cursed name of Rassilon is going on? What the hell is that thing inside Lucy?"

"It's a Gadarene," the Doctor answered tersely. "We studied them at the Academy, remember?"

"_What?_" the Master snapped. "That's impossible. The Gadarenes became extinct eons ago."

"Evidently not. I came across this one a few centuries back, causing problems on Earth. I tricked it into a time eddy. When you and Tejana came through the Rift, you opened a temporal gateway into the eddy and released it."

"Yeah, well, I figured that much out for myself," the Master retorted. "The question is, what are you planning to do to stop it this time?"

The Doctor shook his head. "There isn't anything I can do. It has too many sources of electrical power at its disposal and it's growing stronger all the time. It's in total control of the ship. And now it wants Tejana, to gain access to the Time Vortex. There's only one way to stop it now."

"What way?" the Master demanded, his eyes narrowed suspiciously.

"You need to reverse the temporal displacement. If the causal nexus is restored, none of this will happen. Time will revert to its original course and Legion will never have been released."

The Master smiled derisively. "Ohhhhh no. Nice try, Doctor. Very clever. But you needn't think I'm going to fall for that."

"I'm serious, Master!" the Doctor said urgently. "It's the only way. You've seen how powerful it is. That door won't hold it for long. That creature is going to kill every living thing throughout the whole of time and space."

"You don't seem to understand, _Doctor_!" the Master spat. "This time it's _my_ turn! This is _my _ship! _I_ rule the Earth and in a few months, I will rule the Universe. _That's_ the way it's supposed to be."

Tejana turned within his arms, looking up into his face, seeing the deadly determination in his expression. "Please, Koschei, for once you need to listen. We don't belong here. Take us home."

"No!" he snarled. "You know why I'm doing this, Ana. For you. For us. For the son we're meant to have!"

She shook her head. "No, you're doing it for you. Because it's what _you _want. Even without Legion's interference...you know I was never going to be happy here. I could never accept what you've done, what you're planning on doing. I want a life with you, more than anything, but not like this."

He stared down at her, conflict written across his face. Reaching up to him, she cupped his cheek with her hand. Taking a deep breath, she said in a choked voice, "I love you, Koschei. _You_, just as you are. I love the man who saved my life in The Matrix. I love the man who holds me at night and keeps my bad dreams away. I love the man who should have been the other half of my soul from the very beginning, if it hadn't been for Rassilon. You don't have to do anything else. You don't have to _be_ anything else. Because you're already everything to me."

His gaze held hers, seeing for the first time the truth that shone there for him, only and always for him. Suddenly, his own eyes glistened with suppressed emotion, the new knowledge slowly dawning in the brown depths. "Ana..." he whispered huskily, his hands tightening on her upper arms.

Pulling his forehead down to rest against her own, she said fiercely, "Take us home, Koschei. Please take us home."

"Rassilon took _so much_ from me, Ana...everything I could have been...because of him I've lived through nine hundred years of pain and loneliness and darkness and insanity," he growled, his eyes closed now against the terrible memories, his face twisted in bitterness. "How can you ask me to just let that go?"

"What he did to you was wrong – incredibly, devastatingly, heart-breakingly wrong!" she answered, sliding her fingers through his hair, cradling his head close. "But it's done. What you're doing isn't going to change it. You can't go back. _No-one_ can ever really go back, even Time Lords. Leave the past where it belongs, behind us, and come home with me. We can make a fresh start together, a brand new day, just you and me."

She felt him tense and, for a moment, she thought she had lost him. Her hearts sank, expecting him to pull angrily away. But then his mouth found hers and he was kissing her again. She could taste the salt of tears and, with a pang, she realised they were not her own. Still holding her tightly in one arm, his other hand slid into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out a small, black device.

"Here," he said harshly, handing it to the Doctor. "Chrono-transponder. Reverse the exact co-ordinates, we go back."

The Doctor took it, his face creased in relief, minutely examining the device.

Overwhelmed by happiness, knowing that at last everything was going to be all right, Tejana hugged the Master close, whispering fervently in his ear, "Thank you, Koschei. Thank you so much."

Just then, there was a deafening pounding at the door. Startled, they all whirled around and looked at the reinforced steel barrier, which seemed to quiver and shake like a leaf.

More static crackled across _The Valiant's_ communication systems. The Doctor realised that Legion had opened a two-way audio channel. The demonic creature now appeared to be fully in charge of all the ship's systems.

"_AS PROMISED, THE MANY HAVE COME, DOCTOR. WE STAND AT YOUR DOOR AND KNOCK. ARE YOU READY TO DIE?_"

"Not this time, Legion!" the Doctor answered, raising his voice. "You've lost again. We're going to restore the causal nexus. You'll be back in that time eddy long before you can get inside that door."

To his surprise, the creature's hollow laughter echoed back to him. "_AH, BUT DOCTOR, YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND. WE ARE ALREADY INSIDE!_"

Before the Doctor could react, a slender, brown hand reached out and snatched the chrono-transponder from him. Turning in horror, he saw Martha standing there, the small device held victoriously aloft. Even as he watched, yellow fire blazed from her eyes and gleaming ribbons of silver streaked madly up her arms.

"Oh my God!" Jack whispered, as he, Owen and Ianto backed away from her.

Martha looked directly at the stunned Doctor, her face contorted in an evil grin of triumph.

"_MY NAME IS LEGION, FOR WE ARE MANY._"

* * *

Tejana felt numb with despair. They had been so close to putting everything right, just as she had promised Damon, so close to going back home. Now, except for Jack, all the humans on board _The Valiant _were dead.

The creature inhabiting Martha had been unstoppable, its energy shield impregnable, its very touch lethal. Before long, the great steel door protecting the flight deck had been breached, a blackened hole burned right through it, indisputable evidence of Legion's awesome power. The three Time Lords and Jack had been seized by the invading zombies and made to kneel in a line at Lucy Saxon's feet. Against their will, they were forced to watch as, one by one, Legion drained the energy from each of its human victims. And one by one, they saw each of the slaughtered men rise again, re-animated in zombie form to serve the many, their eyes as dark and empty as the pits of hell.

Owen and Ianto were the last to go. Having watched the others die, they knew exactly the horror that was in store for them. Nevertheless, they refused to flinch, each of them showing a rare courage that made Tejana achingly proud of them and, at the same time, broke both her hearts.

Owen was just so _Owen_, defiant to the very end. He flicked a rueful glance at his remaining team-mates as he knelt and Lucy relentlessly placed her hands on his head. "See ya, Jack, it's been a blast. Tea-boy, always a pleasure working with you. No regrets, as they always say."

"_ANY FURTHER LAST WORDS, HUMAN?_" Legion asked mockingly.

"Yeah..._screw you_!" Owen spat, just before the excruciating pain ripped through his brain, killing him instantly.

When Ianto's turn came, his farewell words were simple and heart-rending. "I love you, Jack."

And Jack had struggled fruitlessly against his captors, screaming in pain as the young Welshman had died in agony before him. Tears burnt like acid in Tejana's eyes. Jack had always been destined to lose Ianto, but not so soon, not like this.

But even worse than watching their friends die was the desecration of having to watch their violated bodies rise again, the terrible darkness in their eyes betraying the absence of their souls, the complete annihilation of everything that had made them who they were.

"_DO YOU SEE NOW, DOCTOR?_" Legion sneered from inside Lucy's body, with Owen standing at her left hand and Ianto at her right. "_THE MANY CANNOT BE DEFEATED._"

The demon made an imperious gesture and two other black-clad zombies marched over to join the two Torchwood men. Tejana gasped painfully as she recognised them both. The first was tall, with close-cropped greying hair, a dark bullet hole marring his forehead, gaping like a third eye. The second man was younger and slightly shorter, with curly dark hair and a slender build. His broken arm dangled loosely at his side, the pain he had once felt having died along with him. His obsidian, pupil-less eyes, once sparkling and dancing with life, now stared blankly at Tejana, as if in silent accusation.

"Peter! Damon! Oh gods, _Damon_, not you too!" she cried, sickened by his dead gaze but unable to look away.

Legion laughed, a chilling, sepulchral sound of black amusement. "_DO NOT CONCERN YOURSELF WITH THESE INSIGNIFICANT HUMANS, TIME LADY. SOON, VERY SOON, YOU TOO WILL JOIN THE MANY AND YOU WILL LEAD US TO VICTORY OVER TIME ITSELF,_" it said implacably.

* * *

**- The Cells, _The Valiant_, Christmas Day 2008 -**

The zombies that had once been their friends had marched the three Time Lords down to the lower levels of the ship and had confined them together in a cell.

The Doctor paced up and down, going over and over the situation in his mind, cudgelling his brain as if he could extract an answer from it through sheer force. _There had to be a way out of this._ _There had to be! _ Some weakness, some loophole that had previously escaped his attention, something he could use to turn this around. But he kept coming back to the same thing, over and over again, in a never-ending circle. _The chrono-transponder_. Somehow they had to get it back, it was the only way to defeat Legion.

Tejana sat on the ground with her back to the wall, her head hidden in her arms. The Doctor looked at her in concern. "Tejana?"

"It's won, hasn't it?" she said, her voice muffled. "We can't stop it. It's killed everyone on this ship and now it's going to assimilate me and use me to kill everyone else, right throughout time and space."

The Doctor was about to go to her, when he realised the Master was there before him. Despite everything that had happened, the Doctor couldn't help feeling a spurt of anger. It was bad enough to be told that Tejana was in a relationship with the Master, but actually seeing that relationship in action took the concept of bad to a whole new level. Watching his normally level-headed daughter passionately kissing his old enemy was not an experience he was anxious to repeat.

Crouching beside her, the Master put his hand on her shoulder. "Ana..."

Her head shot up, her eyes blazing with fury. "Don't touch me!" Then, as he pulled back in surprise, she hissed, "Don't you get it? This is _your fault_. We had everything we needed but it still wasn't enough for you. _ I _wasn't enough for you. You never change, do you? You always want more and more and more! Well, this is your reward, Master. Are you happy now?"

She dropped her face back into the sheltering circle of her arms, her shoulders shaking with sobs. The Doctor saw the Master's face tighten and he tensed, ready to intervene if the other Time Lord erupted into anger. Instead, the Master merely went very still, like a statue carved from stone, his eyes fixed intently on her tangled mass of curls.

"I love you, Ana," he said quietly.

Her head came up again, her face written with a contempt that would have done credit to the Master himself. "_Love!_ You don't love me. You don't even have the vaguest concept of what the word means. You just want to _own_ me, the same way you always want to own everything else! Well, you don't own me, Koschei, and you never will!"

With that, she turned away from him, closing him out with every line of her slender form. The Master hesitated for a moment. The Doctor opened his mouth to say something, but the look on the Master's face made him change his mind. It was an odd, hungry, almost desperate look, the look of a man who was about to jump off a cliff into the unknown. As the Doctor watched, he put both hands on Tejana's shoulders, forcing her to face him again. Then he leant forward, put his lips to her ear and whispered something very briefly. Tejana's reaction was nothing short of dramatic. Her whole body stiffened as though she had been stabbed, her eyes widening in titanic disbelief, all the colour draining from her face in shock.

At that moment, the door slid open to reveal Martha, yellow eyes glowing.

"_SAY YOUR FAREWELLS, TIME LADY,_" the voice of Legion said, echoing from Martha's mouth. "_FOR NOW YOU WILL BECOME ONE OF THE MANY._"

Damon and Owen stepped forward and hauled Tejana unceremoniously to her feet. Without even blinking, Damon pulled the Master away from her and, with supernatural strength, back-handed him savagely into the wall, as casually as he would once have swatted a fly. Dazed, the Master crumpled to the ground.

"Koschei!" Tejana screamed, kicking and fighting against the rough hands that held her.

"Let her go!" the Doctor shouted, surging forward, only to receive a brutal punch in the stomach from Owen, bringing him to his knees. Tejana was dragged out through the door. Martha gave the two Time Lords a final, taunting look and turned to leave, sliding the door firmly closed behind her.

The Master tried to rise, but then sank back hopelessly against the wall, his head in his hands, his shoulders slumped in despair.

Gasping for breath, the Doctor glared at him. "What did you say to her? Just before they came for her..._what did you say_?"

The Master's head came up and his gaze met the Doctor's, his lower lip curled in contempt. For a moment, the Doctor thought he wasn't going to bother answering.

But then he rasped, "I told her my _name_."

This time it was the Doctor's turn to stiffen in disbelief, his mouth suddenly dry with shock as he instantly understood exactly what the Master was saying.

Time Lords typically had three names in their lives. Firstly, their childhood name, which they used as they were growing up. For instance, when they were very young, the Doctor and the Master had been known as Theta Sigma and Koschei respectively. Then, when they graduated from the Academy, it was Gallifreyan custom for young Time Lords to choose a new name, to mark the transition to adulthood, which was when Theta and Koschei had become the Doctor and the Master. Tejana was a little bit different in this regard. Having left Gallifrey with the Doctor shortly after completing her studies at the Academy, she had never attended the formal graduation ceremonies for her year and had never bothered to choose a new name, preferring to still go by her childhood name. Sometimes the Doctor thought it was a symbolic choice for her, a way for her to overtly repudiate the restrictive formality of their home planet.

But the most important name of all was the birth name or "true" name. The name a Time Lord was given when they were born was considered sacred in Gallifreyan society. It was usually known only to the child himself and his parents and was never revealed to anyone else, except when it was given as a precious gift, usually to the person chosen as a life-mate. It was the ultimate gesture of trust, the ultimate commitment a Time Lord could make to another person. The Doctor knew that if the Master had just told Tejana his true name, it could only mean one thing, as impossible, as preposterous, as completely inconceivable as it seemed.

"You love her!" the Doctor exclaimed incredulously. "No tricks, no games, no manipulation...you really, really love my daughter!"

The Master glared at him. "You always were quick on the uptake, Doctor," he said sarcastically. "Go to the head of the class. Borusa would be proud!"

* * *

**- Lucy Saxon's Quarters, _The Valiant_, Christmas Day 2008 -**

Night had fallen across _The Valiant_. The large windows in Lucy Saxon's suite reflected only darkness, punctured here and there by the pale glimmer of an occasional star. Christmas Day was nearly over, the last Christmas Day the Earth would ever see.

Yet again, Tejana stood before Lucy Saxon, their eyes locked, one final confrontation between the human and the Time Lady. But this time Tejana knew that the thing looking back at her from behind Lucy's eyes was not, and never had been, human.

In the background, behind Lucy, stood Martha, Gwen, Tosh, Francine and Tish, watching with reptilian eyes like an obscene jury of the damned.

"_THE LAST TIME LADY OF GALLIFREY_," Legion sneered. "_IT IS ALMOST A PITY TO __DESTROY SOMETHING SO RARE AND SO BEAUTIFUL._"

Tejana refused to answer, turning her head away and concentrating instead on the shining stars outside the window. They were her birth-right, those stars, forever calling to her, singing in her blood. This was the last time she would ever see them.

"_THIS WOMAN CALLED LUCY. SHE FELT SUCH HATRED FOR YOU FOR TAKING FROM HER THE ONE SHE LOVED..._" Legion continued in an amused voice. "_AND YET SHE COULD STILL APPRECIATE WHAT HE SAW IN YOU._"

Reaching out, Lucy trailed her fingers down the side of Tejana's face. Her touch was soft and light, yet somehow insinuating and almost sexual in nature. It was the most disgusting, depraved thing Tejana had ever felt. She flinched away as if she had been burnt.

Legion smiled lasciviously. "_SO, TIME LADY...DO YOU HAVE ANYTHING TO SAY BEFORE YOU BECOME ONE WITH US?_"

Tejana's eyes flicked back to meet the creature's yellow gaze with steady contempt. "I think Owen just about covered it," she said coldly. "_Screw you!_"

But it was not Owen's last words which filled her mind as Legion reached for her, but instead the last word the Master had spoken to her. Closing her eyes, she heard it again, whispering in her hearts, the most beautiful word she had ever heard, that most precious of all gifts.

_His name._

Lucy's mouth closed over hers, the vile essence of the creature spewing between her lips and into Tejana's throat, the noxious particles sweeping away everything she was, everything she ever could have been. Teetering on the brink of oblivion, she held that one word close to her, like a tiny, glowing sun, drawing its warmth into her soul.

Then she fell into the deep, dark abyss.

She didn't see the insidious tendrils of silver coiling up her arms.

She didn't feel the Master's psi-bracelet shattering on her wrist, the gleaming fragments falling at her feet like a shower of golden rain.

And she didn't hear the loathsome voice which echoed gloatingly from between her lips.

"_MY NAME IS LEGION, FOR WE ARE MANY._"


	21. Chapter 21

_**Author's Note: Thank you very much to the following people for their reviews on the last chapter, virtual hugs for you all - GallifreanGirl, tardisandafirebolt, MayFairy, RiverBleu, babybluepineapple, iLuvTwiBoyz, Kaylie S, Lost Moon, Aietradaea, SnowNinja123, KlinicallyInsaneKoschei, Jiwa, Omniac, Loopytoo, Beautiful Rogue, Geraldine, OhTex and Seileach.**_

_**Another shortish chapter - but it is summer here (although raining today) and I have had my feet up for once, so right now, any update is a bonus, LOL!  
**_

* * *

**CHAPTER TWENTY ONE**

**- _The Hub_, March 2013 -**

The Doctor stood staring at the data flooding across the screen of the Rhondium Sensor. The fluctuations in Time centring around the events of December 2008 were growing stronger and stronger, the ripples emanating from the temporal metastasis spiralling closer and closer together. They were literally running out of time. All the gateways of possibility were beginning to close. Once it became inevitable that Legion would succeed - once all the opportunities of stopping the creature in 2008 were forever lost - the time-line would solidify and the current reality of 2013 would collapse in on itself, to be replaced by a completely new future. And, knowing Legion as he did, the Doctor surmised it would be not be a future anyone in the Universe would willingly choose.

"It's not getting any better, is it?" a voice asked beside him.

Looking up, he saw Amy, her eyes fixed worriedly on his face.

"No," he said heavily. "No, it's not."

"But you're back there...the past you...and Tejana...and the Master. You're all Time Lords, you'll think of something," Amy returned, her tone determinedly cheerful. "Right?"

The Doctor glanced at her with a wry smile. "You have a lot of faith in us."

"You're the one who's always telling me to trust you," she replied with a shrug.

"Yeah, well...maybe you shouldn't listen to me so much," the Doctor said glumly.

At that moment, the door to Jack's office burst open and the Captain appeared on the landing, before rapidly striding down the stairs, followed closely by Tejana. Concerned, the Doctor realised his daughter was clinging to the back of Jack's long coat, seemingly trying to restrain him.

"No, Jack," Tejana yelled, holding on for all she was worth. "Stop! You're not going to solve anything! You're going to make it all worse!"

"Right now, it can't _get_ any worse!" Jack snarled. Tejana was strong, but she was no match for Jack's superior bulk. He pulled easily away from her and stalked out into the central work area of the Hub, heading for the door leading down into the cells.

"What's going on?" the Doctor demanded. "Jack, what are you doing?"

"I'm going to do what you should have done a long time ago!" Jack told him, his blue eyes cold. "I'm going to get rid of the Master, once and for all."

"_What!_" the Time Lord exclaimed, taken aback by the venom in Jack's voice.

"How many times, Doctor?" Jack continued savagely. "How many times throughout the centuries have you had the chance to kill him and how many times have you let him live? All that bullshit of yours about helping him, saving him...and how many people have died as a result? Well, not any more. It ends here."

As the Doctor watched in horror, Jack's body began to glow with pure white Time-fire, the deadly light swirling in a nimbus around him, shining like some kind of avenging angel. "I'm going to wipe him out of Time itself. This is all his doing – without him, none of it will ever have happened."

"The causal nexus doesn't work like that, Jack," Tejana cried, jumping down the last of the stairs. "You can't predict what might happen! You mustn't..."

Suddenly, she broke off with an agonised gasp, reeling backwards and collapsing to the ground, as though an invisible assailant had struck her with a staggering blow.

"Tejana!" Amy shrieked, running over to her.

"What did you do?" the Doctor yelled at Jack. "_What did you do?_"

"Nothing!" Jack replied in alarm, the Time-fire fading from around him as his anger dissipated. "I didn't do anything!"

"Tejana, are you all right?" Amy asked urgently, helping her to sit up.

The Time Lady looked at her and smiled oddly. "Of course I'm all right," she said softly. "Everything's perfect! I'm going to marry the most wonderful man in the world."

The Doctor stared at her face. Something was wrong. Something was very, very wrong. Her eyes were wide and guileless, like a child, filled with a dreamy excitement he had never seen there before. And her voice...it was still Tejana's voice, but the vowels were too rounded, too plummy, too reminiscent of a public school education.

"Married?" Amy queried in confusion. "To who?"

"Why, Harry Saxon, of course," Tejana trilled delightedly, climbing to her feet. "My handsome Harry...the next British Prime Minister."

Turning in a slow circle, she spun away from them, out into the middle of the Hub. "Why, yes, Harry...I'd love to dance," she simpered coyly.

She gave her hand to an invisible partner, adoration shining in her eyes and then she began to waltz gracefully around the darkened room. Each step was so perfectly executed, the Doctor could almost hear the music, almost see the lights of the ballroom, almost see the ghostly man who twirled her effortlessly through the intricate patterns of the dance. The stately, silent pantomime was one of the most eerie things he had ever witnessed.

"What the hell...?" Jack murmured.

"She's dancing..." Amy said in bewilderment. "Doctor, what's going on?"

"I don't know," he replied, reaching out to seize his daughter's arm as she glided past. "Tejana, stop it! Stop it now! What are you doing?"

Tejana pulled away from him and glared at him furiously. Her hands curled before her as if she was holding a gun, her body stiff as if she was backed against a wall. "_Shut up_, Owen!" she hissed, her voice lilting in an unmistakable Welsh accent. "This isn't my fault, OK? This is _Jack's_ fault for running out on us. I didn't ask to be left in charge of Torchwood and I'm bloody well doing the best I can! So, for once in your life, can you just quit with the whinging!"

Jack started in shock. "That...that sounds just like Gwen."

The Doctor seized his daughter's face in both hands and forced her to look at him. "I'm not Owen, Tejana. Come on, you know who I am. Concentrate! Think hard! Who am I?"

She gazed at him curiously, her head on one side. Then, a light of recognition seemed to gleam in her eyes. "Doctor?"

"Yes, that's right...I'm the Doctor!" he encouraged hopefully.

"A Judoon platoon upon the moon? Are you serious?" she said incredulously. "So...you're not human, you have a sonic screwdriver, my hospital is now located on the moon...and that's the best you can come up with?"

"What on Gallifrey...now she's Martha!" he muttered, his brow furrowed in frantic thought. "Lucy Saxon, Gwen Cooper, Martha Jones...She's re-enacting memories. Other people's memories." His head came up in sudden, horrified realisation. "Other _women's_ memories, bleeding though the Rift! Jack, get her down into a cell, right now!"

"What?" Jack said in puzzlement.

"Don't argue, just do it!" the Doctor snapped. "NOW!"

* * *

**- The Cells, _The Hub_, March 2013 -**

The Master lay back on the uncomfortable bunk and stared at the ceiling. He was furious. Furious and frustrated. He had been going over and over his plan in his mind, trying to find the weak spot, trying to work out how the Doctor had managed to foil him yet again. But, for the life of him, he could think of nothing. It was perfect! Fool-proof! And yet apparently not Doctor-proof. _The Year That Never Was_, they had called it. So that meant that somewhere, somehow in the next six months of his time-line, it all fell apart, before his rockets were able to be launched. And in five years time, he would end up here, enacting a temporal displacement, trying to do it all over again.

_Five years_. Such a short time, a drop in the ocean in the long, long life of a Time Lord. But in that tiny interval, apparently things were going to change for him beyond belief, if the Doctor was telling the truth. He was going to lose the drums. The very idea was inconceivable. He could hear them now, as loud as ever, pulsing in his brain, the monotonous pain somehow comforting, as familiar as his own breathing. The thought of being without them, of living in silence after nine hundred years of marching to their never-ending rhythm...the concept seemed too vast, too incomprehensible. He jerked his mind away from it as though he had been burned.

And he was supposed to fall in _love_. With none other than the Doctor's brat. _Tejana_. He snorted aloud at the thought. That red-headed Pond girl had to have a screw loose, it was the only possible explanation - so why couldn't he stop thinking about what she had said?

_Tejana ends up defying the Doctor for you. She leaves behind her father and Jack and Torchwood – her whole life, everything that matters to her - to be with you. And you love her, you really, really love her. For the first time in all those centuries, you actually have a real chance to be happy._

His mind drifted back to the moment of powerful sexual attraction between he and Tejana earlier that day. He wanted her, that much he would admit. Closing his eyes, he imagined how good it would feel to hold her down, mastering her naked body with his own, making her cry out his name in abject submission as he took her again and again and again...oh yes, _that_ was easy enough to imagine. His entire body tingled in heated pleasure at the erotic prospect. But _love_...that most useless and infantile of all emotions...that was never going to happen, not to him. And as for _happiness_...happiness to the Master meant defeating the Doctor, happiness was owning the Universe, happiness was _winning_ for once...it did not, and never would, come from something as ridiculous as love.

Just then, footsteps in the corridor above interrupted his musing. And shouting. An unfamiliar female voice, loud and strident. Someone was coming. Rising to his feet, he moved curiously across to the perspex wall and looked up at the metal ladder. Sure enough, the hatch opened and he saw Captain Freak begin to descend. He was carrying something over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, something that was fighting and kicking and screaming.

"Put me down! I swear to God, Clive, I will rip your head off! I'm not kidding! How _dare_ you bring your blonde bimbo to our son's twenty-first birthday party! And with a seventy-five pence piece of soap as a present! Put me _down_, you big ape!"

With a start, the Master realised that the screeching voice was coming from Tejana. He had seen her angry and defiant often enough on board _The Valiant_. Indeed, he had rarely seen her any other way, which was not all that surprising, under the circumstances. But she had always carried herself with a quiet dignity, as befitted a Time Lady of Gallifrey, no matter what. He had definitely never heard her shrieking like a fishwife before. And the garbled things she was saying made no sense at all...something about an "orange, gold-digging tramp" and someone named Clive who should be "old enough to know better".

With some difficulty, Jack managed to arrive at the bottom of the ladder with his struggling burden intact. He was promptly followed by the Doctor and his red-headed companion.

"Put her in one of the cells," the Doctor instructed tensely. "One that doesn't have an electronic lock."

The Master leant on the perspex wall and watched Jack man-handle Tejana into the heavily-reinforced cell opposite and hand-cuff both her hands to the bed.

"Having a few problems, are we, Doctor?" the Master asked sardonically, trying to work out what the hell was going on.

The Doctor ignored him completely, his attention focused exclusively on his daughter. Tejana glared at them all with malevolent hatred, snarling like an animal, pulling viciously at the restraining chains. The Master noted with disfavour that Captain Freak was still hovering inside the cell, playing the hero as usual, obviously reluctant to leave her in there. Not for the first time, the Master couldn't help wondering what the exact relationship was between those two.

"What's wrong with her, Doctor?" Amy bleated. The Master smirked to himself at her tone. For someone who said she didn't scare easily, the stupid girl certainly sounded frightened enough.

"If it's what I think..." the Doctor began, breaking off sharply as he saw a delicate silver pattern erupting around Tejana's slender wrists, twining up her arms like coils of shining ivy. "Jack, get out of there! _NOW!_"

Jack stumbled backwards towards the door. Veins of silver trickled across Tejana's face and her eyes seemed to grow larger and deeper, flames of yellow blazing deep within them like living coals. Glancing down at her shackled hands, she smiled and slowly twisted her wrists. The hand-cuffs crumpled like paper and fell away, leaving her free. She raised her head again and fixed the Doctor with a malicious, unblinking stare.

"_MY NAME IS LEGION, FOR WE ARE MANY_," she rasped in a harsh, low voice, before moving forward at a terrifying speed. Jack only just managed to get the door closed, sliding the heavy bolt home just in the nick of time, as her body slammed into the other side with an appalling thud.

"That's it!" Jack exclaimed, his face strained and pale as he stared through the small window at Tejana's ravaged features. "That's the creature I saw on _The Valiant_. But how did it get here?"

"It's absorbed Tejana into the hive mind, back in 2008," the Doctor said bleakly. "She's still linked to her counter-part in this time through the Master's chrono-transponder. Legion has managed to use the link to manifest itself though the Rift into the future, to assimilate this Tejana as well."

"_THIS DOOR WILL NOT STAND BETWEEN US FOR LONG, DOCTOR,_" Legion hissed through Tejana's mouth. "_WHY NOT SURRENDER? WHY CONTINUE TO FIGHT, WHEN IN THE END YOU WILL ONLY LOSE?_"

"Forget it, Legion," he snapped. "I'm the Doctor...I never surrender."

"_WE ARE MANY_," the creature intoned. "_THE MANY CANNOT BE DEFEATED."_

"What happened to Tejana?" Amy spoke up bravely. "Where is she? What have you done with her?"

"_SHE HAS BECOME ONE OF THE MANY. AS WILL YOU, IN DUE COURSE, AMELIA POND, AND ALL OTHER FEMALES OF YOUR KIND._"

Amy flinched at the mention of her name, wincing as though she had been slapped. "How do you know my name?"

"_THE MEMORIES OF THE MANY ARE SHARED_," it replied. "_WHAT IS KNOWN TO ONE IS KNOWN TO ALL._"

"The memories Tejana was re-enacting," Jack snarled in horror, suddenly understanding. "Gwen and Martha?"

The Doctor nodded grimly. "The shared memories of those assimilated into the hive mind." He swung around and focused bitterly on the Master. "Do you see now? Do you understand? You can't win, no matter what! This thing is a Gadarene. Your future self released it from the Rift when he enacted the temporal displacement. It's taken over _The Valiant _in 2008. It will kill every male on board, including you. It will absorb every female. And now that it has succeeded in assimilating Tejana, it will use the Rift to spread throughout Time and Space and this future – and all of us - will cease to be. The only way to stop it is to reverse the displacement!"

The Master's eyes narrowed, his thoughts racing as he tried to decide if this was another of the Doctor's tricks. But looking again at the malice distorting Tejana's lovely face, seeing the abysmal creature staring back at him from behind her eyes, he knew deep inside that this was very real.

"What if it's too late?" Jack cut in urgently. "It's already got Tejana! What if there's nothing we can do?"

"If it was already too late, this time-line would have already collapsed," the Doctor said. "There must still be some small chance of stopping Legion, some window of opportunity still available, keeping Time in flux. Master, if you know any way to help, trust me, now is the time to speak up!"

The Master hesitated for just a few more seconds. As much as it galled him to help the Doctor, it was abundantly clear that this was the only way to ensure the continued survival of either of his selves, past or future.

"All right," he said resignedly. "Let me out and I'll see what I can do."


	22. Chapter 22

_**Author's Note: Hi all. Thanks to SnowNinja123, MayFairy, Aietradaea, GallifreanGirl, tardisandafirebolt, babybluepineapple, OhTex, Omniac, Lost Moon, RiverBleu, Kaylie S and Loopytoo for reviewing the last chapter.**_

**_The reason I joined this site was because I love to write and because I love to entertain people with the stories I see in my head. I also enjoy receiving feedback on my work and love chatting to other like-minded people on here. However, over the last few weeks, I seem to have become inadvertently caught up in some unpleasant conflict on this site which has both upset and saddened me. I just want to state for the record that I have never been involved in any "nastiness" on here and I never will, that sort of thing is totally against my nature. In fact, over the last couple of days, I have been contemplating taking all my fics down completely over it all. However, I have not fully decided on this, hence the interim update._**

**_The point is, I really hope everyone enjoys this chapter - I could do with a lift, LOL!  
_**

* * *

_**CHAPTER TWENTY TWO**_

**- _The Cells, The Valiant_, Christmas Day, 2008 -**

They both felt the psi-bracelet shatter. For one brief moment, she was with them again, her mind warm and alive and vital within the psychic link.

And then they heard her silent scream as she fell into seething shadow and there was nothing left in her place except a hollow emptiness.

The Doctor raised his head and looked at the Master, his gaze haunted with the anguish of what he knew had just happened. "She's gone."

Crouched against the wall, his eyes closed, the Master did not move, did not acknowledge his words and did not reply, his face as still and as cold and as hard as a rock.

But then, as the Doctor watched, a single tear forced its way from beneath his eyelids, slid down his cheek and fell to the ground.

* * *

**- Somewhere in Time and Space - **

Warm. Comfortable. Safe.

_Home._

Tejana stirred, revelling in the wonderful feeling of the soft, cotton sheets against her naked skin. Her eyes flicked open. Even in the dim light, she knew where she was. She could make out the clean, white walls, feel the imperceptible hum of the engines, sense the tapestry of beautiful psychic harmonies surrounding her. The Master's arms encircled her from behind, holding her firmly against the hard length of his body. She was in their big, white bed in his TARDIS. She was home.

She exhaled slowly. So, just a dream after all. There was no temporal displacement, there had been no return to _The Valiant_, there was a never a creature called Legion. It had all been a warped nightmare born from the depths of her too-fertile imagination. A shudder took her from head to toe as she remembered all the terrible details.

"Ana."

The Master's voice was a husky rasp in her ear. She felt his hands moving, roaming up her ribs and down to her hips, stroking, seeking, caressing...Heat washed over her skin, every nerve in her body instantly coming alive, responding hungrily to his touch. He turned her to face him, his hands tangling in her long hair as he took her mouth in an insistent, searching kiss, insinuating one knee between her thighs as he roused her to a fever-pitch of need.

She wanted to give into it, that familiar, welcome flood of desire, to let herself drown in it, to let everything else wash away in it, as she had so many times before. Caught in the depths of pleasure, she heard her own voice, calling his name.

And that was when her body froze.

Because the name that came from her lips was not Master. And it was not Koschei. It was another name altogether, strange and unfamiliar and beautiful. And yet she knew it was his.

_One word, held close, like a tiny, glowing sun, drawing its warmth into her soul...one word._

With a strangled gasp, she pulled away from him and jumped off the bed. Confused, she backed away, her gaze skittering frantically around the room like a trapped animal.

"Ana! What are you doing?" the Master demanded, sitting up abruptly. "Come back to bed."

"It wasn't a dream!" she said. "Because you told me your true name – the one thing a Time Lord could never dream. And if that wasn't a dream, then neither was the rest of it. I can't possibly be here. And neither can you."

"I _said_, come back to bed!" he ordered angrily.

But Tejana wasn't listening. Instead, she began to concentrate, forcing herself to observe her surroundings in minute detail, looking past what her mind wanted her to see to the reality beyond. For a moment, nothing changed. But then the room seemed to blur and pixelate around her, as though the image was steadily decreasing in resolution. Right in front of her, a jagged tear ripped through one of the bright, white TARDIS walls, a large chunk curling back and falling away, like a stripped piece of old wallpaper. Behind, there lay nothing but darkness, thick and heavy and as cold as ice.

Tejana could no longer hear the Master's voice. Glancing back over her shoulder, she saw that the bed was empty. More pieces were peeling away now, flaking and falling, faster and faster, like the filthy ash that had fallen from the sky on the Last Day of Gallifrey. Tejana's teeth began to chatter and she wrapped her arms around herself, trying to protect herself from the freezing wind that had begun to blow, scattering the last remaining fragments of the insidious mirage into a curtain of obsidian mist. There was nothing left of the warm, comfortable bedroom. Darkness yawned at her from every direction, lit only by a peculiar, harsh half-light, giving a strange, inverted look to the shrouded landscape, like a photographic negative. She was standing knee-deep in some sort of viscous, grey sludge. To her immense disgust, she realised that the vile stuff was also smeared over the rest of her naked body. While ensnared in the tempting hallucination, believing she lay in the Master's embrace, she had actually been lying in the stinking muck.

Tejana felt a clawing fear crawling up her spine. _Where was she? What was this terrible place? And more importantly, how the hell could she get out of here, back to the Master and the Doctor?_

Sorting through the fragmented images in her mind, she tried to piece together what had happened. She could see Lucy's mouth coming towards her, remember the rush of Legion's essence pouring down her throat, choking her in corruption. She had been assimilated into the hive mind.

_So was she dead? _ She didn't feel dead. Then again, she didn't exactly feel alive either, so that probably didn't mean much. _Caught somewhere between the two, then? _ Neither alive nor dead, her mind trapped helplessly within Legion's consciousness, while the creature used her living body for whatever it pleased.

_Oh gods, if only it wasn't so cold._ It was so hard to think while her very blood seemed to be turning to ice within her veins. _If only she had some clothes..._

Even as the thought crossed her mind, she found herself wearing her favourite pair of jeans, a sturdy pair of boots and the heavy, blue hooded jacket she had donned so often during the bitter winters on Earth. In wonder, she stroked the soft fabric, feeling the reality of the coat under her fingertips. But of course, what had she been thinking? She had put the jacket on herself this morning, hadn't she? Because it was snowing - to trudge through the cold, white London streets to meet Wilf at the cafe in Chiswick. How could she have forgotten?

And as she seemed to remember, it all formed around her, rising out of the primordial grey sludge, a world creating itself out of nothing. The smooth, shiny Formica table under her hands; the large plate glass windows looking out on to the busy thoroughfare; the sharp, bitter smell of the frothy coffee sitting in a mug in front of her; the lulling sound of Wilf's voice as he told her yet another tall tale, his grandfatherly face full of affection as he sat across from her.

Warm. Comfortable. Safe.

_But not real._

Ruthlessly, Tejana jerked her mind away from the peaceful, soothing scene. At last, she was beginning to understand, to recognise the treacherous nature of this place. So this was how Legion maintained control of the minds it absorbed. Anything Tejana wanted, anything she desired, here it was all possible. This was what the demon Legion offered to the Many – hell disguised as heaven. Like the Lotus Eaters in Greek mythology, she could just let go and indulge in the seductive narcotic of these beguiling images, drawn from her own happiest memories, forgetting everything else, never wanting to leave, never wanting to fight. All she had to do was believe in the fantasy...and, in believing, lose her soul.

"Oh no, you don't, Legion, " she snarled, violently shaking her head. Knowing she needed to concentrate, she deliberately focused her mind on the Master's true name, repeating it over and over to herself like a mantra, a shining talisman against the dark.

Wilf stopped speaking abruptly in mid-sentence, the shadowy vision of the cafe wavering and disintegrating into ragged shreds before it even fully formed, the gossamer threads twirling and dancing in the eerie wind before disappearing.

Tejana was left standing alone in the loathsome grey goo, haloed once more by the odd half-light. Her lips tightened in determination. It was clear that she was going to have to be very careful what she thought in this place. And it was also clear that standing still was not a good idea. She didn't know what she needed to do to get out of here, but she was damned if she was going to loiter here like a sitting duck, waiting for more of Legion's enticing hallucinations to creep up on her. She began to walk, the nasty water lapping at her legs. A flash of anger scorched through her as she felt the putrid liquid seeping into her boots. If this place was all about her wishes and desires, perhaps she could turn that to her advantage.

"I want a path!" she said aloud, her voice cold and commanding. "Now!"

Like magic, a path appeared beneath her feet, a well-worn pebbled byway that wound ahead of her into the distance, vanishing into the dark. Even this was familiar – she knew this path, with its pristine white gravel. It was an exact replica of the trail that meandered through the shrine to the Great Time War on the Eye of Orion.

_The Eye of Orion...she and the Master, lying under the stars, their bodies entwined together..._

Again, she managed to pull her mind back in the nick of time, just before her wayward thoughts began to manifest into another hallucination. Resolutely, she began to march along the path she had summoned, this time keeping her thoughts firmly under control.

Because if the Master took her into his arms again, hallucination or not, she was not sure she would be strong enough to resist.

* * *

**- _The Hub_, March 2013 -**

"Well?" the Doctor demanded, almost dancing on the spot with impatience as the Master examined the data from the Rhondium Sensor. "Can you do anything or not?"

The Master scowled. "I could think a lot better if you called your watch-dog off."

Jack smiled mirthlessly, his gun hovering bare inches from his enemy's head. "I told you, this is _my_ turf. The only reason you still exist is because the Doctor believes you can help Tejana," he said curtly, sparkles of Time-fire glittering behind his hard blue eyes. "But if you try to pull anything, I promise you, you'll be begging for a bullet by the time I'm through with you."

The Master flicked him a contemptuous glance and then returned his gaze to the Doctor. "The temporal amplifier is still linked to the chrono-transponder through the Rift. If I can use it to send a signal back through time, the chrono-transponder will reflect it back and we should be able to isolate the initiating variables from that and reverse the displacement."

"But the data from the amplifier has been completely wiped," the Doctor frowned. "How can you trace the link to send a signal?"

"Not wiped," the Master replied smugly. "Hidden."

"What? Hidden? Are you sure?"

The Master put his head on one side and grinned mockingly. "Oh, come on, Doctor. How long have we known each other now? It's _exactly_ what I would do. Never burn your bridges, always leave an escape hatch. A lot of other things may change over the next five years, but I'm guessing that's not one of them."

* * *

**- Somewhere in Time and Space -**

Tejana walked on and on through the shifting mist, her feet crunching loudly on the white pebbles of the path. Wearily, she found herself wondering if this was all there was, just more and more of the same, endlessly stretching into infinity. How long did she have before she ran out of strength? How long before she just lay down on the path and gave up from sheer exhaustion? How long before the phantoms from her own mind came to claim her soul?

But then, rising up out of the ground before her, she saw a building appear, its windows warmly lit with glowing candle light. It was constructed in the wattle-and-daub style common to Elizabethan England and seemed to be a lodging house of some kind, with a rickety staircase running up the outside of the building, leading to the tavern above. A battered, crudely-made sign hung over the entrance, announcing the name of the establishment as "The Elephant." Tejana had never seen it before in her life. She closed her eyes and channelled her mind, expecting the strange inn to disappear into the mist, just like the Chiswick cafe. To her surprise, when she opened her eyes again, it was still there, just as visible as it had been before.

Tejana muttered a Gallifreyan curse word she had never heard of before she began travelling with the Master. Only very strong belief could have created this building, holding it in place so firmly on the shifting landscape. And the mind that the belief stemmed from did not belong to Tejana. To her eyes, the outlines of the building, while solid enough, seemed just a little blurred, just a little out of focus. Someone else was dreaming this.

Taking a few uncertain steps forward, she reached for the wooden railing of the staircase, almost expecting her fingers to pass right through it. However, instead she felt the rough texture of wood beneath her hand. Gingerly, she began to climb, until she reached the door at the top. She tripped the latch and gave it a small push, until it swung open with a protesting creak and she stepped cautiously into the room beyond.

Things were even more blurred inside. Tejana was just able to make out a large fireplace, complete with a roaring fire. A large oblong table was set in the middle of the room, scattered with papers. Several candles gleamed, reflecting brightly off the polished surface of the table and the three pewter tankards which sat on it. Tejana moved forward. Behind her, a maid in a white cap and a black dress bustled about her duties. The Time Lady ignored her, looking instead at the three people seated around the table. On one side there was a man with golden-brown hair and a neatly trimmed beard, dressed in a black Elizabethan jacket and an open-necked white shirt with lace at the cuffs. Tejana couldn't distinguish the features of his face, but she was sure she didn't know him.

The second man was equally blurred, but she didn't need to see him clearly to know who it was. He had spiky brown hair with long side-burns and was wearing a pin-striped brown suit, with a long, tan-coloured coat draped carelessly over the back of the chair he was sitting on. It was Ten.

In complete contrast, the third person sitting at the table was perfectly clear and distinct, the outline of her figure sharply defined and almost painful to the eye against the smudged background of the room. She had dark hair twisted up into a knot on top of her head and smooth brown skin. She was wearing a fitted burgundy leather jacket and large golden hoop ear-rings. It was Martha Jones. Looking at her blissful face, Tejana knew immediately she had found the enslaved mind that had created this hallucination. This was one of Martha's happiest and most precious memories – this was her lotus flower, the place for which she was prepared to give up her soul to stay forever.

"Sweet lady," the Elizabethan man said, his head inclined towards Martha. "Such unusual clothes...so fitted."

Martha smiled, her eyes flitting flirtatiously between the strange man and the Doctor. "Um...verily, forsooth, egads."

The Doctor frowned, giving her what Tejana assumed was a pained look. "No, no, don't do that. Don't."

Tejana stared at them as the Doctor leaned forward and displayed his psychic paper to the other man. It was like watching some weird kind of play in action on a television that was not quite tuned correctly.

"I'm Sir Doctor of TARDIS. And this is my companion, Miss Martha Jones."

Suddenly, Tejana knew what she was seeing. Martha had described this scene to her in detail. This man was William Shakespeare. This was the moment where Martha Jones had met the greatest playwright in the history of her world.

"Martha!" she said sharply, knowing she had to snap her friend out of it as soon as possible, before she became even more lost in her fantasy world. "MARTHA!"

No-one in the room paid her any heed at all.

" Interesting, that bit of paper," Shakespeare said laconically. "It's blank."

"Oh, that's...very clever!" the Doctor replied, his tone uncharacteristically impressed. "That proves it. Absolute genius!"

Tejana thrust her hand in front of Martha's face and waved it up and down. "Hello, Martha! Anyone home? Hello?"

Martha looked right through her, as though she wasn't even there, peering closely at the Doctor's psychic paper instead.

"No, it says so right there. Sir Doctor, Martha Jones. It says so."

Desperate now, Tejana put both hands on her friend's shoulders and shook her. Martha didn't even notice, her eyes wide and entranced as she gazed at the image of Shakespeare she had generated from her own mind.

"And I say it's blank," the playwright returned calmly.

"Psychic paper. Um, long story," the Doctor said to Martha, the impatience in his voice barely disguised. "Oh, I _hate_ starting from scratch."

"And I _hate_ being ignored!" Tejana ground out. "OK, time for drastic measures. Sorry in advance, Martha."

Seizing Martha by the sides of her head, she pulled her friend forward, slamming their foreheads together in a painful head-butt. At the same moment, she drew on her precious, dwindling store of artron energy and channelled a short, sharp blast of the gleaming, golden power directly into Martha's brain, effectively drenching her consciousness like a freezing cold bucket of ice-water.

Martha screamed, her mind savagely wrenched from the warm pleasure of her dream-state. She looked around her wildly, her eyes suddenly alert. The Elizabethan tavern began to fade away, Shakespeare and the Doctor vanishing into thin air, the oak floor-boards beneath their feet dissolving into empty darkness.

Holding on to each other, Tejana and Martha began to fall.


	23. Chapter 23

**_Author's Note: Hi all! Big thanks to the following people for reviewing the last chapter: GallifreanGirl, tardisandafirebolt, xxTeam-Masterxx, iLuvTwiBoyz, Omniac, SnowNinja123, babybluepineapple, Riverbleu, Lost Moon, Seileach (x 2), MayFairy, Aietradaea and Catelly._**

**_Thanks also for all the messages of appreciation and encouragement, it was amazing and wonderful and very heart-warming. I very rarely get new reviewers any more, probably because this series is so long and people can't be bothered reading from the very beginning, so it just makes me appreciate so much the people who consistently read and review each chapter and actually take the time to express their appreciation for the hard work I put in - especially since there are so many people who do read and just don't bother. So thank you, I love each and every one of you._**

**_Specially big box of virtual cookies for SnowNinja123, who was my 300th reviewer for this story- how cool is that?_**

**_Also a big wave for Catelly, hope you are doing OK._**

**_After all that yadda yadda, here's the chapter...dig in!  
_**

* * *

**CHAPTER TWENTY THREE**

**-The Nether World -**

Tejana and Martha landed with a large splash in the disgusting, grey swamp, the thin, shadowy mist eddying unpleasantly around them.

To the Time Lady, who had been more or else expecting something of the kind, the experience was singularly revolting. With a disgusted grimace, she wiped the thick, mucous-like sludge from her eyes and then shook her hands to flick the stuff from her skin.

To Martha, pulled sharply from the warm haven of one of her most treasured memories, the sudden descent into hell was an experience that went well beyond traumatic. She took one look around her and began to scream, a shrill, piercing cry that echoed around the eerie landscape like the haunting wail of a banshee. Tejana shivered at the bone-chilling sound. Hurriedly, she crawled through the mud to the other woman and took her by the shoulders, shaking her briskly while looking closely into her face.

"Martha! MARTHA! It's me, Tejana. Stop it, you're all right now."

Stunned recognition flashed in Martha's eyes. Wheezing harshly, she managed with some difficulty to swallow back the hysterical shrieks, putting her head down between her knees.

"That's it! Good girl," Tejana encouraged, patting her shoulder. "Deep breaths. Long, deep breaths."

"What...what happened?" Martha gulped. "Where are we? I was with the Doctor...and William Shakespeare!"

Tejana winced inwardly. She knew that explaining the truth about Legion was not going to be the easiest of tasks. "No, Martha, you weren't. You were on _The Valiant_. The Master captured you, remember? You were in a cell. And I'm guessing you had a little visit from Lucy Saxon, right?"

Revulsion washed over Martha's face as she began to remember. "She came into my cell. She looked so strange. I couldn't move...and then she kissed me on the mouth and I was falling and falling, down this black hole. But then the Doctor was there and everything was wonderful again. Until now. Until I woke up in this terrible place."

"Lucy's body was taken over by a creature known as a Gadarene," Tejana replied calmly. "It's a hive mind. It procreates by absorbing other life-forms into its group consciousness and taking over their bodies."

"So that's what she was trying to do? Absorb me?" Martha said with a shudder. "So what stopped her? Was it you? Or the Doctor?"

"Um...neither of us, as it happens," Tejana answered, wondering uncomfortably if Martha was about to start screaming again. "Try not to panic, OK, but...nothing stopped her. You _were_ absorbed. And so was I. Right now we're trapped inside the creature's consciousness. That's what this place is."

Martha's eyes widened with horror but, to Tejana's relief, she managed to stay relatively calm. "Are...are we dead?" she asked fearfully.

"No, not dead. But not alive either. Somewhere in between."

"And the Doctor? And Shakespeare? They were here too, I saw them. What happened to them?" Martha demanded. "Are they OK?"

"They weren't really here. The creature...it's named Legion, by the way...Legion uses the happiest memories of its victims to seduce them into apathy. As long as you think you're in the middle of your most desired fantasy, you won't fight its control over your mind. I'm sorry, but I had to snap you out of it."

Martha stared at her and then gave an odd, sharp little laugh. "So...what you're saying is that my most desired fantasy...the memory I most wanted to live in forever...was meeting Shakespeare with the Doctor?"

Tejana shrugged, not understanding the point of the question. "Apparently."

Martha gave something resembling a sob, her eyes gazing unseeingly out over the dreadful, mist-wreathed terrain. "That night, sitting there in that tavern...it was the last time I actually thought I had a real chance with the Doctor. I thought...I hoped that he and I would...but then - after we met Shakespeare - he told me all about Rose. And that's when I knew that I'd never be anything but second-best to him."

Feeling a stab of sympathy, Tejana reached out and squeezed her friend's hand. She knew that following in Rose's footsteps had never been easy for Martha. In his usual, oblivious, careless way, the Doctor had never made it easy.

"During the last six months, walking the Earth, I've had so much time to think...I really believed I was getting over him," Martha continued bitterly, her voice harsh with self-recrimination. "But then, as soon as some dumb monster comes along and picks up on my most treasured memory, guess what it turns out to be? I'm so stupid. So bloody stupid!"

"You're not stupid. And you'll find someone else, Martha, I promise. Trust me, I know," Tejana said gently, wishing she could tell her friend about her future with Mickey, but knowing it was impossible.

"Yeah, sure I will," Martha returned with a miserable sniff, visibly trying to pull herself together. "Don't know why I'm talking to you about it anyway. You're a Time Lady. It's not like you'll ever understand what it's like to fall in love with someone you shouldn't."

Tejana flinched at her words and drew in a sharp breath, both hearts contracting in sudden pain as she thought of the Master, wondering sadly if she would ever see him again.

"You're so right, Martha," she said curtly, marshalling her wandering thoughts with stern control. Releasing the human woman's hand, she climbed to her feet. "What the hell would I know?"

Then, looking upwards, she barked, "Path!"

On cue, the white-pebbled path appeared under her feet, twining away into the distance. Martha gasped.

"How did you do that?"

"Nothing is real here. It's all about mental manipulation of the environment," Tejana answered tersely. "It can work for us as well as against us. Let's go."

Martha stood, a frown creasing her face. "Where to?"

"To whatever comes next, of course," Tejana said, starting to walk. "If there's one thing travelling with the Doctor should have taught you, it's that there's always a way out. Now we just have to find it."

"Wait!" Martha snapped.

Tejana sighed and turned to face her. "What now?"

"If nothing here is real, how do I know you're not a hallucination?"

Despite the gravity of the situation, Tejana couldn't help laughing. "Martha Jones, if one of your pet fantasies involves hanging out with me in a place like this, maybe I _should_ start being concerned about you!" she replied. "Now, come on! Just follow behind me, keep your eyes fixed on my back and try not to think too much about anything. The charge of artron energy I've given you should help to insulate your mind against the hallucinations, but we can't take any chances."

With that, she began to walk away again. Martha hesitated for a moment, but then apparently decided that taking a chance with Tejana was better than staying behind in the mud on her own. Rising to her feet, she hurried to catch up with the Time Lady, falling into step behind her as she had been instructed.

"Artron energy?" she queried, as they marched along. "What's that when it's at home?"

"A Time Lord's life energy," Tejana said briefly. "In this case, mine."

"Life energy!" Martha exclaimed. "But...doesn't it harm you, to do that?"

For a moment, Tejana didn't answer. Given the advanced stage of her current life-cycle, she had very little artron energy to spare. And, the truth was, if her levels dropped too low, she knew she would be seriously compromising her ability to regenerate.

But then she said quietly, "I promised a friend of mine that I would put this right. And I intend to do it...whatever it takes."

* * *

They walked through the swirling mist for what seemed like hours, but could have been merely minutes. It was hard to tell in such an unnatural place. Martha had subsided into grim silence, the only sound from her being the crunch of her feet on the gravel path. Tejana didn't mind – she was very glad she was no longer alone, but she really didn't feel like having to answer any more difficult questions.

Then, in the creepy half-light, she saw something up ahead of them. Halting abruptly, she narrowed her eyes, trying to work out what they were walking into this time. Martha poked her head around around her friend's back to see why they had stopped.

"That...that's a couch! A couch, in the middle of nowhere, with someone sitting on it!" she murmured incredulously.

Tejana nodded in agreement. "Yep."

Cautiously, they began walking again. The closer they got to the comfortable-looking, salmon-coloured couch, the more details began to appear like magic around them. On their left, there was a huge dormer window with cream curtains; a pine dining table in the window alcove with four modern chairs; a paper-laden computer desk with a crowded pin-board hung above it; and a vase of pink carnations. On their right, there was a large mirror on the wall, decorated with a pretty string of fairy lights. Behind the couch, they could see a tiny, blue-painted kitchen with a brown and blue mosaic tile splashback. Two chairs sat at the breakfast bar and a bright orange light hung over it. There was even an airing rack, draped with miscellaneous pieces of female underwear. Everything was warm and inviting, but just slightly out of focus.

"Tejana, I can't see properly!" Martha exclaimed in alarm, rubbing at her eyes. "It's all blurry."

"That's because this isn't your fantasy. It's hers," the Time Lady replied, indicating the person sitting on the couch.

The woman had black shoulder-length hair and a pale face with large dark eyes. She was wearing a black leather jacket and jeans, with a bright red, low-cut top.

"I can see _her_ all right. That's Gwen Cooper!" Martha whispered. "The woman who was running Torchwood while Jack's been away. She's the one who handed me over to the Master."

"There's no need to whisper," Tejana said. "She can't hear you."

Gwen was smiling at a large, stocky man who had just materialised beside her on the couch. His face was shadowed and his silhouette was blurred, but Tejana had no doubt that this was an image of Rhys Williams, Gwen's boyfriend and future husband.

As they watched, Rhys rose from the couch and, with a dramatic flourish, dropped to one knee in front of Gwen.

"What are you doing, you big dope?" Gwen laughed affectionately, her voice lilting with her pretty Welsh accent.

"Gwen Cooper, you are the most beautiful woman in the world and I love you more than my own life!" Rhys announced, producing a small box from his pocket and opening the lid. "Will you do me the extreme honour of becoming my wife?"

A stunned look passed over Gwen's face. She had clearly not been expecting a marriage proposal. For a brief, awkward moment, she stared at Rhys without speaking. Tejana couldn't help wondering whether, even now, in this most treasured of all her memories – the ultimate moment of her loving commitment to the ever-faithful Rhys - Gwen was still thinking of Jack.

But then Gwen threw her arms around Rhys and hugged him hard. "Oh yes! Yes, yes, yes, a thousand times yes...I would love to marry you, Rhys Williams!"

Taking the ring from the box with a trembling hand, he slid it on to her finger. "Perfect fit!"

"Oh, Rhys," she sighed, holding her hand out in front of her and admiring the ring. "It's beautiful."

"Never as beautiful as you!" Rhys whooped with delight. Grabbing her around the waist, he lifted her in the air and spun her around in a jubilant circle, before kissing her hard on the lips. "Mrs Gwen Williams...oh, I absolutely _love_ the sound of that!"

"What do we do?" Martha asked tensely, watching the newly-engaged couple dance happily around the insubstantial room.

"Spoil the party, I'm afraid," Tejana answered with a resigned shrug. "Here we go again."

Stepping close to the Welsh woman, she gave her a quick, sharp head-butt, together with a simultaneous surge of artron energy, just as she had for Martha. Gwen gave an agonised shriek, her hands clutching at her head as she fell helplessly to her knees. The image of Rhys dissolved horribly into wisps of smoke and blew away, while the walls of the tiny apartment crumbled into dust around them.

Tejana stumbled backwards into the dark, trying to catch her breath, this second drain of artron energy making her feel temporarily light-headed. Martha caught her arm and anxiously steadied her.

"Are you all right, Tejana?"

"I'm fine," the Time Lady gritted out. "Look after Gwen."

Martha scrambled obediently over to Gwen, who appeared to be completely disoriented, her eyes wide and unblinking as she sat in a pool of grey slime and stared blankly around at her new surroundings, rocking herself back and forth like a traumatised child. Martha put her arms around her and spoke softly and soothingly to her, stroking her hair comfortingly.

Tejana closed her eyes wearily, knowing that Martha would do a much better job of explaining the situation to Gwen than she ever would.

_Martha Jones, the would-be doctor. Gwen Cooper, the woman Jack had referred to so often as the 'heart' of Torchwood. _

A faint, ironic smile touched Tejana's lips. It was like some weird, twisted version of that human movie, "The Wizard of Oz". Tejanakaturadilena, the displaced Time Lady who just wanted to go home, following a path into an unknown country, just like Dorothy in the movie, collecting friends along the way.

_The Healer. The Heart. Who next then?_ she wondered hazily._ The Tin Man? The Cowardly Lion?_

As if her own thoughts were mocking her, the white gravel path she was sitting on suddenly shimmered, the surface transforming beneath her into a herring-bone pattern of bright, yellow bricks.

"Oh, very funny!" she muttered sarcastically to herself, climbing to her feet. Then, to the others, she called in a peremptory tone, "Come on, let's move it."

"I think she's in shock!" Martha protested. "I'm not sure she's fit to travel."

"She has to be," Tejana replied inflexibly. "We can't stay here."

"I don't understand any of this. Where are we going?" Gwen asked weakly.

"To see the wonderful Wizard of Oz," Tejana said wryly, helping Martha to support the other woman's weight as they began to follow the newly-formed yellow brick road.

They didn't find the Tin Man or the Cowardly Lion as they continued their journey along the path. But they did find Toshiko Sato, sitting in the conference room in the Torchwood Hub, sharing a pizza alone with an imaginary Owen Harper; they did find Francine Jones, out for a picnic on a sunny day in the park, with her husband Clive and two small daughters and infant son, a long-ago memory of happier times; and, lastly, they did find Letitia Jones, out for a romantic dinner with a handsome young man whom Martha identified as Tish's ex-boyfriend, David, who had apparently in the end left her for another girl.

Each time, Tejana was forced to give up more of her artron energy to waken the minds of the entranced humans. Each time, she grew slightly weaker; each time, slightly more withdrawn and distant from her increasing number of companions, leaving Martha to organise the small group of travellers straggling along behind her.

Eventually, they came to a large, beautiful stone church, gracious and mellow in the golden, late afternoon sunshine of a summer's day. Tejana felt sick inside. As far as she knew, there was only one person missing from the roll call of Legion's victims, only one person they had not found. Swallowing back the nausea, she gritted her teeth and led the way in through the double doors of the church, already knowing what she was going to find. Inside, the pews were packed to capacity with people. Gorgeous banks of fresh flowers and swathes of white silk had transformed the ancient church into a bridal bower. A pipe organ played reverent classical music in the background, the mellifluous notes resounding tastefully around the room. Photographers and news teams prowled the outer aisles, hoping for a scoop. A bishop, resplendent in his official robes, stood behind the lectern at the front of the room, gazing out benevolently over his congregation. And, standing before him, tense with anticipation, were four men, elegantly attired in black suits – a best man, two grooms-men...and the groom. As before, Tejana's impression of the dreamscape was softened and indistinct. But she could never mistake that arrogant stance, the innate aura of menace and power that vibrated from the groom. It was Harold Saxon. It was the Master.

There was a deep, dramatic pause in the organ music. Then the first few notes of "The Wedding March" rang throughout the church. The congregation rose to their feet, turning to gaze back towards the doors. Tejana watched the Master turn with the others. Even from this distance, even with the obscuring haze of the dream, she could see the triumphant, white grin on his face, the beautiful, terrible smile with which she was so familiar. Slowly, as if the small movement was incredibly painful to her, Tejana also swivelled around. Three bridesmaids entered, one after the other, slender and chic in pink satin designer gowns, carrying elegant bouquets of miniature roses. And behind them, on the proud arm of her portly father, came the bride, radiant, glowing, beautiful beyond description.

Lucy Cole, youngest and most beloved daughter of Lord Cole of Tarminster. Dressed in her magnificent Vera Wang dress of pure white silk, her long train trailing gracefully behind her, her blue eyes sparkling in her exquisite face, shining with slavish love and devotion, she swept eagerly up the aisle to marry her fairy-tale prince, her handsome Harry, the man everyone tipped to be the next Prime Minister of Britain.

Tejana watched the human woman ascend the steps to the altar, taking her place beside the Master, as he turned to her and took her hands lovingly in his. Even though she knew this was a memory drawn from Lucy's subconscious, something that had happened a long time ago, hurt seared viciously across Tejana's hearts, together with a possessive rage. Far from saving Lucy, all she wanted to do at that moment was to kill her.

"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today..." began the priest.

Leaving her small group of companions behind her, Tejana stalked unseen up the aisle towards the wedding party, seething with jealous anger.


	24. Chapter 24

**_Author's Note: Hello everyone! Big thanks to the following people for reviewing the last chapter - tardisandafirebolt (hope you are feeling better today), babybluepineapple, GallifreanGirl, MayFairy, Aietradaea, xxTeam-Masterxx, iLuvTwiBoyz, OhTex, RiverBleu, Omniac, Lost Moon, Loopytoo, Catelly, Beautiful Rogue and SnowNinja__123_**.

_**Also, a massive wave and thankyou to my new reviewer (yay, I got one, so exciting!), mericat - so happy to have you on board, doing a happy dance now!**_

**_And another big public thank you to Beautiful Rogue, since I can't thank you personally for reviewing so regularly! I really do appreciate it._**

**_OK, I'll shut up now, here's the chapter..._**

**_

* * *

_**

**CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR**

**- _The Hub_, March 2013 -**

Grimly, Jack pressed the 'Call Disconnect' button on his mobile phone and returned it to his pocket one-handed, his other hand still steadily holding his gun on the Master.

"UNIT have never heard of Doctor Martha Smith-Jones," he said to the Doctor, his tone bleak. "And when I rang Gwen's place and asked for her, Rhys swore at me for being an insensitive bastard and hung up, so I assume she's also now dead in this time-line."

The Doctor nodded, but didn't reply. After all, the information was only what he had been expecting. Even though neither Martha or Gwen had been on board _The Valiant_ during the original Year That Never Was, this time around things had obviously changed, since it was clear they had both been assimilated by Legion in 2008. The Doctor's eyes remained fixed on the computer terminal in front of the Master. The renegade Time Lord was typing rapidly on the keyboard, his hands a blur of motion. One by one, the missing parameters for the temporal amplifier were reappearing on the screen, as he methodically uncovered the codes needed to disable the intricate cloaking algorithm his future self had put in place.

Suddenly, Amy's voice echoed tinnily over the communicator. "Jack? Jack! Can you hear me?"

Jack pressed the button on his ear-piece and answered, "We can hear you, Amy. What's going on?"

"I think you'd better get down here, Jack," Amy responded shakily. "Right now."

Jack hesitated, torn between the need to check on Tejana and his reluctance to leave the Master unguarded. He didn't trust the other man's sudden willingness to help. The Master was going to try to pull something, he just knew it. And Jack wanted to be there when he did it. His hatred was now bordering on a deep-seated obsession. He was aching for the Master to give him an excuse, any excuse...

"Go," the Doctor ordered, without looking up. "It's fine."

Slowly, Jack lowered his weapon. The Master cast him a brief side-long look, his brown eyes taunting, as if he knew every thought in Jack's mind, before sliding his gaze back to the screen. Forcibly containing his anger, Jack strode away without a word, heading for the door leading down to the cells, where Amy was keeping a close watch on their new prisoner.

The red-headed girl glanced up in relief as Jack began to descend the ladder.

"What is it?" he asked shortly.

"See for yourself," she said, indicating the observation window of Tejana's cell.

Inside, Jack could see a brilliant blue-white light flickering madly, surrounded by showers of orange sparks, dancing like a swarm of enraged fireflies. It was almost as if somebody was operating a high-powered arc welder behind the reinforced steel door. Shielding his eyes against the bright light, Jack managed to catch a glimpse of Tejana standing in the middle of the cell. Her silver-patterned face was fixed in a fierce rictus of triumph and determination, her forefinger pointed unwaveringly at the door, an intense stream of electrical power blasting forth to bombard the obstructive barrier to her freedom. Already the door was beginning to glow cherry-red, the thick metal quickly heating to an extreme temperature.

Jack swore loudly. Grabbing Amy's hand he began to pull her towards the ladder. "Come on, let's get out of here."

Amy dug her heels in, resisting him. "We can't just leave her!"

"We don't have a choice!" Jack shot back. "From the look of that door, I'm guessing we have less than twenty minutes before she's through it. There are two more reinforced doors between here and the central work area. Which means that unless the Doctor and the Master can figure something out in under an hour, that thing will be loose in the Hub. And there's not a thing we can do to stop it."

* * *

**- The Nether World -**

"Matrimony is not by any to be entered into unadvisedly or lightly; but reverently, discreetly, advisedly, soberly, and in the fear of God. Into this holy estate these two persons present come now to be joined," the bishop droned, his toneless voice seeming to go on and on and on as Tejana approached the altar. Lucy was gazing up at the Master, her eyes alight with adoration. Tejana's palms itched to slap the enraptured look right off her face.

"If any person here present can show just cause why they may not lawfully be joined together, let him now speak, or else hereafter for ever hold his peace," the clergyman continued, looking out over the congregation with a suitably stern expression.

"Oh, you have no idea! Don't even get me started!" Tejana growled, quickly moving to stand between the priest and the happy couple. "And you know what? I'm not even the tiniest bit sorry about this!"

With that, she seized Lucy by the shoulders and smashed their foreheads together with more force than was probably necessary. As she had done with all the others, she transmitted a simultaneous blast of artron energy to the other woman's mind. But this time, although the grip of the hallucination shifted marginally, it did not disperse. Immediately, Tejana knew that something was wrong.

"Harold Saxon, do you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife, to live together after God's holy ordinance in the holy estate of matrimony?" the priest warbled inexorably in Tejana's ear. "Will you love her, comfort her, honour and keep her in sickness and in health; and forsaking all others, keep you only unto her, so long as you both shall live?"

Tejana felt Lucy's mind twist away from her, as slick and slippery as an eel. In that instant, she realised that the human woman was fighting her with everything she had. At some level, all of the other women had known that Legion's hallucinations were not real. As difficult as it had been, in the end the rational, sane side of their psyches had willingly reached for the lifelines Tejana had thrown them, helping her drag them back to reality. But Lucy's fantasy was the strongest of all and her psyche was no longer rational or sane. Posing as Harold Saxon, the Master had taken full control of the human woman's malleable, unstable mind and had so thoroughly ensnared it, so thoroughly corrupted it, that she could not envisage anything beyond him. He was the beginning and the end of her world, her only reason for existing, the sole motivation behind every breath she took. She had betrayed the human race for him, condoning and even encouraging the murder of millions of people. Now she could not bear to face the bitter reality: that, even after everything she had done for him, Harold Saxon had never loved her; that she was less than nothing to him; that it had all been an empty, meaningless lie. Legion's vile possession had become her twisted salvation – here, buried in the foul depths of the creature's hive mind, she could stay in the fantasy for eternity, forever loved, forever happy. And she had no intention of allowing Tejana, her hated rival, to drag her away from her chosen paradise.

"I will," the Master responded, his tone as gentle and as sensual as velvet.

Tejana's skin tingled at the sound of his voice, feeling it stroking softly over her senses. Fresh anger surged through her veins, together with a sharp, slicing pain. If it hadn't been for Rassilon's evil machinations, she would have been the one married to the Master, long, long ago - not joined in a meaningless union by these clumsy human words, as he and Lucy had been, but bound together in a beautiful, traditional Gallifreyan ceremony, their futures eternally entwined. She was a Time Lady. Why was she even wasting time trying to help this stupid human? If Lucy wanted the fantasy - wanted the _lie_ – that badly, then let her have it. Why should Tejana waste her precious store of artron energy, risking her own life to restore the woman to a reality she didn't even want? The temptation was strong, so strong, just to continue her journey and leave Lucy lost in her dreams. Slowly, very slowly, she began to back away.

"Lucy Elizabeth Cole, do you take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband, to live together after God's ordinance in the holy estate of Matrimony? Will you obey him, and serve him, love, honour, and keep him, in sickness and in health; and, forsaking all others, keep only unto him, so long as you both shall live?"

"I will," Lucy cooed, fluttering her eyelashes at the Master coquettishly, her pale blue eyes shimmering with obsessed love.

"Oh, for Gallifrey's sake!" Tejana snarled in disgust.

Stepping forward, she brought her head brutally into contact with Lucy's once more, this time releasing such an intense flood of life energy into the human woman's mind that all her resistance was inexorably swept away, tearing her free from her fantasy world, despite her desperate struggles.

Then Tejana was falling backwards into the waiting embrace of the familiar sloppy bog, feeling it sucking around her limbs, welcoming the disgusting feeling almost with pleasure, knowing that it represented the only reality in this evil place. A dizzying wave of blackness swept through her mind, her body desensitised and numb. Dimly, she realised her reserves of artron energy had just dropped to a critical level.

The walls of the beautiful church seemed to blister and fall apart around them, the swathes of white silk billowing in the freezing wind and disintegrating into dull black ashes, the beautiful banks of pink flowers decomposing into pools of grey slush in the blink of an eye.

An animalistic shriek rang out, full of fury. "_NO...NO, NO, NO!_"

Forcing her eyes open, Tejana saw Lucy standing in the harsh, unnatural light, her perfect white wedding dress smeared with the vile slime, her lacy veil filthy and torn, her silken train sodden and bedraggled. Her beautiful face was contorted in a bestial rage bordering on insanity, her fists clenched tightly before her.

"BITCH!" she howled, launching herself forward at an incredible speed. "YOU BITCH!"

Before Tejana could move, she felt the other woman land on her chest, crushing the breath out of her. Lucy struck out viciously, tearing at Tejana's hair, scratching and clawing at her eyes, screaming all the while. "HE'S MINE! I WON'T LET YOU TAKE HIM FROM ME THIS TIME! I'LL KILL YOU FIRST!"

Her mad rage lending her almost inhuman strength, Lucy relentlessly forced Tejana's head beneath the filthy swamp. Tejana tried to fight back, but the severe loss of life energy had left her far too weak. She couldn't breathe, the quagmire sucking her down, the mud forcing its way up her nostrils, invading her airways. Through the gathering darkness, she felt the relief of her respiratory bypass system kicking in, temporarily easing the screaming of her lungs for oxygen. Knowing she was fighting for her life, she kicked and struggled as wildly as she could, desperately striving to escape from under Lucy's weight. Then, blessedly, she felt the other woman being dragged away from her. Strong hands grasped her and pulled her back to the surface, choking and spluttering.

She could hear Martha's voice calling her name. "Tejana! Tejana! Are you all right?"

For a moment, supported in her friend's arms, she could do nothing but gasp like a stranded fish, her breath rasping harshly in her throat. Frantically, Martha wiped the mud from her face with the sleeve of her jacket. "Tejana? _Please!_"

"I'm OK," Tejana finally managed to respond. As her confused senses began to return to normal, she could see Lucy a short distance away, still struggling as Gwen expertly restrained her in an unbreakable half nelson hold. The other three women hovered warily, as though making ready to grab Lucy if she managed to break free.

Martha closed her eyes in stark relief that her friend was unhurt. "What in God's name was that all about? She's completely crazy! We almost couldn't get her off you!"

"Tell them!" Lucy screeched. "Why don't you tell them, you bitch? Why don't you tell your precious friends that you're screwing my husband?"

"Her husband?" Martha said in bewilderment. "But her husband is the Master. What's she talking about?"

Tejana didn't reply. Instead, she levered herself to her feet and went over to stand before Lucy, her gaze acute with threat. The suppurating wound left by the loss of her artron energy seemed to burn inside her, scalding her hearts like a pool of boiling lava.

"That's twice you've struck me now, human," she said, her voice steeped in venom, distinct and alien in her own ears. "Do it again and I will make you sorry you were ever born."

Lucy stared into the Time Lady's ancient and terrible eyes, all her insane rage draining away into sudden fear. Like her father, Tejana was very practiced at passing for human, so much so that her companions often forgot she was not one of them. But now, the thin veneer of humanity had been stripped away, exposing the ruthless, diamond-hard Gallifreyan core within.

"You have a choice, Lucy Saxon," she continued coldly. "You can come with us and I will do my level best to get us out of here. Or you can stay here and rot in the mud. It's up to you. I don't care which you choose."

Lucy said nothing, glaring fear and hatred at her enemy from the depths of her silence.

"Well?" Tejana prompted, shards of ice glittering in her tone. "I can't hear you!"

The human woman's gaze flickered back and forth. Now that her maddened state had calmed somewhat, she was able to take in the dreadful surroundings and to imagine the absolute horror of being left alone here.

"I'll come," she said flatly.

* * *

**- The Cells, _The Valiant_, Christmas Day 2008 -**

"We need a plan!" the Doctor said decisively, pacing up and down. "A really, really brilliant plan. We have to get that chrono-transponder back, it's the only way to undo this mess."

"So you're telling me you don't have a plan?" the Master snapped. "Nothing? Nothing at all?"

The Doctor glared at him. "I'm working on it."

"Great! Just perfect!" the Master snarled. "When I'm trying to take over the Universe, you can always come up with a dozen different off-the-cuff plans to stop me. But when _Legion_ tries it, you turn up blank!"

"It wouldn't hurt you to suggest something, you know!" the Doctor shot back angrily. "After all, like Tejana said, this is all your fault in the first place."

The Master tensed at the mention of Tejana's name, pain flaring in his dark eyes. "Do you think I don't know that?" he hissed bitterly.

"Sorry, sorry," the Doctor muttered, rubbing distractedly at the back of his neck. "We shouldn't be wasting time arguing. Between the two of us, we have to think of something."

The Master hesitated for a moment and then asked harshly, "If we can't get the transponder back...when you defeated Legion before, what happened to the people it had possessed?"

The Doctor remained silent, his eyes averted from the other Time Lord.

"_What happened to them_?" the Master repeated, his voice as sharp as the blade of a knife.

"They died," the Doctor replied bleakly.

* * *

**- The Nether World -**

And still they marched, following the mockingly cheerful yellow brick road into the mist and darkness. Tejana led the small group, resolutely forcing herself to put one foot in front of the other, unwilling to allow the others to see how weak she really was.

But Martha was not stupid – she had learnt to be observant the hard way, managing to survive on her wits alone as she walked the Earth during the Master's reign of terror. Alert and watchful, she fixed her eyes anxiously on Tejana's back, walking closely behind her, as if she feared the Time Lady might collapse or disappear at any minute. To Tejana's relief, she had not asked any more about Lucy's outburst, obviously assuming the other woman was not quite right in the head. After all, who could blame her, being married to a monster like the Master? In Martha's opinion, she had to be as insane as he was.

Tish was next in line, her arm firmly around her mother, supporting almost all her weight. Francine seemed disoriented and incoherent, her legs going out from under her every now and then. Tejana knew that another boost of artron energy would help, but she just didn't have it to give. Francine would just have to manage as best as she could.

Lucy came next, trailing along in her tattered wedding finery, her face set in weary lines of hatred and despair.

And finally, Gwen and Tosh brought up the rear, each of them carefully watching Lucy, guarding against any further fits of violence or insanity.

Tejana had no idea what, if anything, they would need to face next in their journey. She just hoped there _was_ something else out there, that she wasn't just leading her friends on an eternal march into nothingness, existing on a useless, futile hope until they all just dropped dead from exertion and exhaustion.

Whatever she was expecting, however, it wasn't the shimmer in the distance she had come to associate with another hallucination. Looking back over the small company, she raked her eyes over each of the women, trying to ascertain if this most recent fantasy belonged to any one of them. However, all their eyes were clear, even Francine, who was definitely the weakest of the group. Tejana frowned. Everyone was accounted for. Whose mind could Legion be manipulating this time?

Curtly, she instructed the others not to move, while she and Martha – who refused to leave her side – advanced towards this new, eerie projection on the horizon. What she saw struck her like a fist in the stomach.


	25. Chapter 25

**_Author's Note:_**

**_Hi everyone! Super-duper thanks to all the following people for reviewing the last chapter: Loopytoo, GallifreanGirl, MayFairy, xxTeam-Masterxx, Catelly, MG Atwood, iLuvTwiBoyz, Omniac, Seileach (x 2), Riverbleu, Aietradaea, SnowNinja123, Beautiful Rogue, Lost Moon, OhTex and babybluepineapple._**

**_Also, a huge wave for my new reviewer BeckyBoo12221 - I just love new reviewers, so really I hope I get to hear from you again!_**

**_Seriously, all your reviews give me such a big buzz - they are the reason I work hard to update this story regularly, just so that I get to hear from you all. So keep 'em coming and I will keep up my end of the deal, LOL._**

**_Also, a big wave for tardisandafirebolt - I really hope you are OK. This is the first chapter in the entire series you haven't reviewed, so I'm a bit concerned to know you are all right. Thinking about you ***hugs***._**

**_So here's Chapter 25 (OMG, are we already at Chapter 25?) Enjoy!_**

* * *

**CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE**

**- The Nether World -**

They were standing on a beach. But it was not a beach any human would recognise. The sand beneath their feet was as black as pitch, perfectly flat and perfectly featureless, stretching into the distance in a magnificent sweep of polished ebony. In stark contrast, the sea which lay alongside the dark shore was an astonishing shade of bright turquoise, rippling like silk, restless with tiny waves that crept up the sand like furtive, searching fingers. Overhead, three huge moons hung in the night sky, bathing the breathtaking alien landscape in golden light.

"What is this place?" Martha gasped. "This isn't Earth, is it? Wow, it's so...intense!"

Tejana swallowed hard. She had been here only once before, but it was a place that was hard to forget.

"It's the planet Ariadne," she said in a hushed voice. "It's located on the very edge of the Universe. About as far from Earth as you can get."

Martha wrinkled her nose. "But...is this a hallucination? Who would ever choose a grim place like this for their most treasured memory?"

Tejana didn't answer. She was already walking over the sand, slowly heading further down the beach towards what appeared to be a rippling curtain of rainbow-coloured light hanging on the horizon. Martha scuttled along behind her, staring at the odd phenomenon, trying to make it out through the haze of the dreamscape as they drew closer and closer.

"It's beautiful," she murmured in awe. "All those colours – like a thousand rainbows woven together. What is it?"

"It's a CVE," Tejana returned curtly. "A Charged Vacuum Emboitment. It's a dimensional gateway between this universe and E-Space."

"E-Space?"

"A smaller, oblique universe that exists alongside this one, located at negative spatio-temporal co-ordinates."

"Thanks," Martha remarked sarcastically. "That just about clears everything up." Then her eyes narrowed. "Look, there's someone there! Right by that CVE thing! It must be whoever's dreaming this."

Again, Tejana remained silent, her gaze fixed on the slender figure lying inert on the jet-black sand ahead of them. She knew exactly who it was, beyond any shadow of a doubt. What she didn't understand was how it could be possible.

As they watched, the woman raised herself painfully to her knees. She had long, dark hair, neatly plaited into an intricate braid down her back. She was wearing a ragged brown tunic over a worn pair of leggings and her feet were bare. As the light of the triple moon shone across her face, clearly revealing her features, Martha drew in a sharp, shocked breath.

"But...but that's _you_!" she exclaimed incredulously. "_You're_ dreaming this?"

"Not this me," Tejana responded cryptically.

Martha was about to demand some further explanation, when a familiar wheezing, droning sound echoed across the silent beach. Further up the shore, the blurred outlines of a blue police box appeared out of thin air, the light on top flashing rhythmically.

Martha's face lit up in a blaze of joy. "The TARDIS! The Doctor's here!"

Overcome with relief and excitement, she began to run forward, only to feel Tejana's hand close on her arm like a vice, stopping her in her tracks. "Wait! It's not real!" the Time Lady hissed. "It's part of her...my...fantasy. Watch...just watch!"

The double doors to the time machine were flung open, a flood of warm light spilling out from the interior to pool on the obsidian sand. A man stood there, silhouetted in the light. He appeared to be wearing a black leather jacket over a plain green jumper and black trousers. He had closely cropped dark hair and rather large ears. As always in the dreamscape, his face was indistinct.

"Who's that?" Martha asked in a disappointed voice. "That's not the Doctor."

"Not your Doctor, maybe," Tejana sighed. "But still the Doctor. That's what he looked like before he regenerated into the Doctor you've been travelling with."

Seeing the TARDIS arrive, the other Tejana had forced herself to stand, her chin raised in determination, the proud Time Lady within her refusing to greet her father on her knees. For a few tense moments, she and the Doctor stared at each other across the long expanse of beach, both of them motionless, as if Time had ground to a halt. But then the Doctor shouted her name and began to run, desperately, frantically, as if he was afraid that his daughter would disappear again if he didn't reach her immediately. The two who watched couldn't read his expression through the obscuring haze of the dream, but Tejana remembered it - she remembered it so very well – the incredible joy, the unguarded love, the overwhelming thanksgiving that she had been safely returned to him, against all the odds in the Universe. And, tears springing to her eyes, she remembered her own response. Watching it happen all over again before her was like watching a poignant movie of her own memory. The jagged sobs tearing from the other Tejana, the lurching, ungainly run as she staggered into her father's arms, pride at last thrown to the wind. His arms closing almost savagely around her, the two of them holding each other, clinging so tightly; tears raining down the Doctor's face into her hair, both of them unaware of anything else except the miracle that had brought them back together.

"I don't get it," Martha said in confusion. "What's happening? Why are they both so upset?"

Tejana turned and looked at her, remembered pain shadowing her face. "Did the Doctor ever tell you about the Time War, Martha? The Time Lords and the Daleks, fighting an endless War throughout Time and Space?"

"Yes," Martha replied uncertainly. "He didn't tell me much. Just that both races ended up being virtually wiped out. I gathered it was hard for him to talk about."

Tejana nodded distantly. "During the War, there was a huge battle, known as the Battle of the Ramah Phalanx. The weapons that were used created a huge field of temporal instability, ripping a hole between the dimensions, between this Universe and E-Space. My battle TARDIS was destroyed, along with the rest of my team. I fell into the hole and was lost in E-Space. I was trapped there for a long, long time. The Doctor thought I was dead, along with the rest of the Time Lords. But in the end, I managed to create a CVE and I escaped back to this Universe, long after the War was over," She pointed at the glistening curtain of light. "_That_ CVE, on the planet Ariadne. "

"Oh, my God," Martha said softly. "This is a memory of when he found you, isn't it? When you were reunited after the War. But if you're here, talking to me, whose memory is it? Who's that woman with the Doctor?"

"That's where it gets tricky," Tejana answered grimly. "She's me. She's me from an earlier time-line. It's kind of difficult to explain, but our two time-lines are currently linked via the Cardiff Space-Time Rift. I'm guessing when it assimilated me, Legion used the link to travel in time and has absorbed her as well. This is her fantasy."

Martha's eyes widened. "Two of you? From different time-lines, together in the same place?"

"Yeah, trippy, isn't it?" the Time Lady said. "Occupational hazard of the time traveller, I'm afraid." Then, turning away, she added over her shoulder, "I'm going to have to try to snap her...me...out of it. Stay here, Martha. Don't move until I come back."

"Wait!" Martha objected urgently. "I'm no expert on wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff, but isn't it a really bad thing if you meet up with yourself like that? Won't it cause a massive paradox or something?"

Tejana paused and glanced back at her. "Usually, in real time, yes, that's exactly what would happen. I'd probably blow a hole in the space/time continuum the size of Belgium."

"And here? In this place? What will happen here?"

"To be honest, I don't know," Tejana replied, her expression grave. "But I guess we'll soon find out."

* * *

**- _The Hub_, March 2013 - **

Jack stood in the corridor leading to the Torchwood cells area, his eyes fixed unwaveringly on the heavy, steel hatch in the floor. Even as he watched, it began to glow a fiery red.

Retreating backward a few steps, Jack pressed the button on his communicator.

"Doctor? She's broken out of her cell. She's started on the second door. We're running out of time fast."

* * *

**-The Nether World-**

Tejana walked along the beach, feeling the soft black sand shushing beneath her feet, hearing the gentle waves lapping at the shore. It all seemed so real, so substantial and so solid. She had never thought to be here again, this lonely, forgotten outpost on the edge of nowhere, completely unremarkable save for the fact that it was here, battered and bruised, that she had finally escaped from her long imprisonment in E-Space.

She remembered opening her eyes for the first time, like a newly-born babe, staring around at the golden light of the triple moons, so different from the slight greenish tinge that characterised E-Space, and realising with heart-wrenching joy that she had at last come home.

She remembered reaching eagerly for the reassuring comfort of the psychic link, so long denied to her, expecting to find the familiar, harmonious collective of Time Lord minds, expecting to find _Gallifrey_. But instead there had been nothing, just an echoing, haunted emptiness that had shocked and frightened her to the core. Only one mind had been left, one single solitary consciousness remaining from so many. Drowning in the silence, as terrified as a child left alone in the dark, she had called to it and had felt it answer with both her hearts, recognising the touch she had known all her life, the touch of her father.

And he had come for her, in the TARDIS, crossing the Universe to reach her, until at long last they were together again. She remembered the smell of his leather jacket, the smoothness of it under her cheek, as soft as butter. She remembered the soothing burr of his Northern accent as he spoke in her ear, telling her that everything was going to be all right now. She remembered her tears falling to the black sand, glistening like diamonds, when he told her that they were the only ones left. The Doctor and Tejana, father and daughter, the last of the Time Lords.

So bitter-sweet, that memory, and yet one she had treasured above all others. One that the Tejana from 2008 wanted to stay in forever, holding on to the unprecedented and precious closeness she had felt with her father, before reality had intruded...before Rose had emerged from the TARDIS to stake her claim on the Doctor's time and attention, to once more drive a wedge between them.

The Tejana from 2013 drew in a shaky breath as she stood beside her younger self. She knew she had to try to shatter the illusion, as she had done for all of her human companions, but she didn't quite know where to start. A charge of artron energy would not work on a Time Lord mind – and anyway, she had none left to give. So instead, tentatively, not sure whether mental contact was even possible, she reached into the psychic link and began to call.

"_Tejana! Tejana!_"

To her relief, the other woman's head jerked up, looking over her ghostly father's shoulder, her eyes directed at the exact spot where her older self was standing.

"_Who are you?_" she demanded, also using the psychic link to communicate.

"_You can see me_," the first Tejana said in surprise.

"_I can see you, although not very clearly,_" her other self replied, her tone taut with wariness. "_Now I'll ask you again, who are you? And how are you able to access the psychic link?_ _ Are you a Time Lord?_"

"_I am you, from the future. You need to listen to me. You're caught in an illusion. A gestalt being has assimilated you into its hive mind – it's using hallucinations drawn from your own memories to stop you fighting the control it has over your mind._"

The younger Tejana frowned."_An illusion? But it feels so real. And if you're me, how can you be here?_"

"_Never mind that, there's no time. You need to understand that this scene on the planet Ariadne happened long ago. It's nothing but a memory. In your time-line, you're currently being held prisoner by the Master on The Valiant, with the Doctor and Jack._"

"_Jack?_" the other woman said, her tone faintly puzzled, as if the name was ringing a distant bell in her mind.

"_Yes! Do you remember Jack?_" the older Tejana asked urgently. Concentrating on the Master's true name had been the key to dispelling her own visions. Somehow, she needed to get her younger self to do something similar, to find something in her own mind that was outside the realm of the fantasy and could be used as a weapon to shatter it. "_Captain Jack Harkness! Do you remember him?_ _Please, you need to concentrate hard. There has to be something you can remember that doesn't fit with the illusion, something from your real life that you can anchor yourself to. You have to MAKE yourself remember, to snap yourself back to reality._"

For a moment, the younger Tejana hesitated, as though she was weighing up whether or not to trust the strange warning from such an unlikely source. But then she closed her eyes and her mind begin to focus within the psychic link, sharpening and intensifying.

Something began to shimmer in the air before her. The older Tejana stared at it. Unlike the dream surroundings, it was perfectly clear. It appeared to be a small, golden ball, about the size of a small grape-fruit, beautifully engraved with intricate runes. She knew what it was – she had come across similar spheres several times before. It was a music box, made by the people of the Jaare-Oregim on the planet Lystra. What she didn't understand was what possible significance a child's toy such as this could have to her younger self. Try as she might, she could not think of any reason why she would choose this image to break the illusion.

Nevertheless, whatever the reason, it appeared to be working. As she watched, the ball unfurled, releasing a startling profusion of light, patterning the night sky with colour. Then the enchanting music began, the Song of the Universe pouring out of the golden sphere and swelling through the air, louder and louder and louder. And as the sound grew, resonating in the silence, the hallucination began to crumble. The image of the Doctor shuddered like an ancient piece of film jammed in an old-fashioned projector, before melting away into the ground. The glowing curtain of the CVE tore itself to shreds and vanished, while the TARDIS simply wavered and then disappeared with an odd popping sound. The black sand and the turquoise sea faded away, transforming once more into the fog-shrouded grey swamp. The golden music box stayed for a few seconds longer, gently rotating in mid-air, before it too was gone, dissolving back into the psychic link, the last few notes of beautiful music lingering softly behind it, like an elusive perfume.

The two separate versions of the same Time Lady were left facing each other, all delusion stripped away, their feet mired in the foul, muddy morass, the cold mist drifting and eddying around them.

"You did it," the older Tejana said quietly.

The other woman nodded, looking around her with an expression of distaste. "Yeah, although now I'm not sure that's such a good thing. Not the nicest of places, is it?"

"It kind of grows on you. It's better than the alternative, believe me."

The younger Tejana fixed her blue eyes steadily on those of her older counterpart. "I remember it all now," she said. "Everything about the temporal displacement. You're the Tejana from Earth-time 2013, aren't you? I've been living your life for the last little while. And I have to say, I'm not entirely sure I like what you've done with it."

Hearing the note of criticism in the other woman's voice, the older Tejana felt a bubble of hysterical laughter rising in her throat. She had spent so much time justifying her recent life choices to the Doctor, to Jack, to Martha...but she had never thought she would need to explain it all to herself.

"Hey, trust me, your life isn't exactly peaches and cream either, you know," she retorted. "There's nothing I'd like more than to restore the causal nexus, so that things can go back to the way they should be."

Even as she spoke, a wave of dizziness struck her. With an effort, she just managed to keep herself from falling, a cold sweat breaking out on her forehead.

"Are you all right?" the younger version of herself asked anxiously. "You look sick. And old...so much older than me. I can even see some grey in your hair now."

Tejana could hear the breath rasping in her own throat as she fought back the debilitating nausea. "Yeah, well, it's been a big five years."

"Mmmm, so I've heard," the other shot back sarcastically. "And this place doesn't exactly seem to be helping."

Sudden pain ripped through the older Tejana's belly, causing her to fall to her knees in the mud. "My levels of artron energy are nearly depleted," she gasped. "And there's something else as well...a sort of tearing feeling."

The younger Time Lady crouched beside her. "I know. I feel it too. I think it's cosmic angst. We're breaking the Laws of Time by being together like this...even here, separated from our physical selves in this unnatural place," she said, her voice tight with worry. "We're being diminished, whittled away piece by piece."

"Cosmic angst? I thought that was just one of the Doctor's tall tales," the older Tejana said hoarsely. "That whole thing about chunks of your past detaching themselves like melting ice-bergs?"

"Evidently not. And, in your weakened state, if we don't do something, I'm guessing it's going to kill you - really, really soon."

The older Tejana gave a painful chuckle. "Oh gods, you don't pull any punches, do you? Was I always that blunt?"

"Not much point beating around the bush, is there?" the other woman shrugged. "There's only one thing we can do. You know it as well as I do. We have to merge."

"Are you sure? You're my past. You're the one who will disappear. You'll be absorbed back into my consciousness. You won't exist here any more. And I have no idea what effect that will have in the real world."

"Like I said, we don't have a choice," the younger Tejana said grimly. "If we remain separate, you'll die in here. We'll never defeat Legion and we'll never restore the causal nexus. We have to do this."

Feeling the deadly weakness crawling through her limbs, knowing she was moments from collapsing into the mud with the pain in her belly, the older Tejana had no other option but to acquiesce. Slowly, she raised her hands so that her palms faced her younger counterpart. "Well...it was nice meeting you."

"Same here," the other replied, also lifting her own hands. "Although, I hope you won't take it the wrong way if I say that I hope we never see each other again."

"No, not at all," the older Tejana responded, her mouth twisting wryly.

Then, moments before their palms touched, the younger Tejana pulled back. "Just before we do this, I need to ask you something...I need to hear it – the truth - from you."

"What?"

"This...thing...you have going with the Master...are you happy? _Really_ happy?"

The older Tejana met her counterpart's searching gaze with a smile, her eyes suddenly glistening with heart-felt emotion. "The truth? The truth is, he makes me happier than I've been in my life before."

The younger Tejana nodded slowly, an answering smile reluctantly lighting her own eyes. "Well then, maybe it's something to look forward to after all. Who'd have thought?"

With that, she slammed their palms together and opened the psychic link as wide as it could go. "Goodbye. And good luck."

"Goodbye," whispered the older Tejana, closing her eyes as she felt the rush of energy swirling towards her.

And when she opened them again, she was once more alone.


	26. Chapter 26

**_Author's Note:  
_**

**_Hi all - big thanks to the following people for reviewing the last chapter, you totally made my week: Aietradaea, MayFairy, MG Atwood, Loopytoo, GallifreanGirl, tardisandafirebolt, iLuvTwiBoyz, babybluepineapple (also thanks for the PM, you are a star), Riverbleu, Lost Moon, Seileach, SnowNinja123, Omniac and OhTex._**

**_Big wave and a welcome for my new reviewer, broadwayb - very happy to have you on board. Thanks for your review on this fic as well as the couple on "One Moment in Time" and "So Many Things Should Have Been Different" - very much appreciated._**

**_Also, I just wanted to say a huge thank you to the people who have recently made comments about how well Tejana fits in with the Whoniverse. My original aim when writing her character was to try to slip her into existing canon as though she had always been there from the beginning, rather than having a big introduction scene where she is introduced to the reader as a "new" character, as with so many other OCs. Receiving your positive feedback, indicating that I have succeeded in my aim, has given me the most amazing buzz and sense of achievement, so I can't thank you enough!_**

**_Anyway, enough of me, and on to the chapter...  
_**

* * *

**CHAPTER TWENTY SIX**

**- The Nether World -**

For a long moment, Tejana remained kneeling in the loathsome swamp, trying to gather herself together. Her artron energy levels had not improved but, to her immense relief, the terrible ripping feeling in her belly had eased as if it had never been. This place, this Nether World, was nothing but a psychological construct. It did not exist on a physical plane, but instead at a mental level. Even though the two different versions of herself had two separate physical bodies in two separate places in the space/time continuum, their minds were still one and the same. Once the psychic link had been opened to maximum between them, they had merged seamlessly into one, their thoughts and memories overlapping almost perfectly.

Except for one, small grey area. Tejana could sense it in the back of her head, a tiny pocket of memories that had belonged to her earlier self and yet somehow did not relate to her. It was a strange feeling - as if, to a tiny degree, they really had been separate people. She guessed that the curious anomaly was a result of the events her earlier self had experienced in 2013, during their period of temporal displacement, things which – weirdly enough – the older Tejana would never remember or experience.

She thought briefly of the image of the Jaare-Oregim music box, which had snapped her younger self out of her dream-state. She couldn't help wondering if the story behind the vision was contained in the tiny, unexplored cache of memories. She knew it would be easy enough to find out – all she had to do was to use her mind to probe the grey area to reveal its contents. Instead, she pulled her thoughts away, leaving the tightly-woven bundle undisturbed. It felt far too much like she was invading another person's privacy, even if that person was essentially herself. And besides, a sixth sense warned her that some things it was better not to know.

Remembering the last words she had exchanged with her younger self, she felt a small twinge of guilt. She hadn't lied, but she hadn't told the whole truth either. The Master _did _make her happier than she had ever been. When she was with him, she felt whole and complete in a way she never had before. Whether she wanted to or not, she loved him with everything she had, everything she was. But it was not that simple either. Because, on the other side of the coin, he had also caused her more _unhappiness_ than she had ever felt before. He was still the Master, even without his drums. His primal urge to own and control and dominate had not changed and probably never would. It was his fault she was in this mess in the first place. And that was the thing she would never be able to explain to anyone, even herself. He was so damaged...deadly, unpredictable, dangerous...and yet he was the only one she would ever want. The Master - _her_ Master - her ultimate paradox, the curious and addictive mixture of magic and pain she could no longer live without.

Wearily, cursing her own weak stupidity, she climbed to her feet. She could see Martha standing in the distance. So far, she had done what she had been asked and had not moved. But the Time Lady guessed that her friend's patience would not hold out much longer, especially having seen the second Tejana apparently disappear into thin air. Raising her hand, she waved at the other woman in what she hoped was a reassuring manner and then began to trudge back towards her.

* * *

**- The Cells, _The Valiant_, Christmas Day 2008 - **

The Doctor and the Master sat side by side on the floor in the cold, narrow cell, their backs against the wall. They had been over and over it all from every conceivable angle, two brilliant minds converging, despite their differences, searching for a solution, desperately trying to find Legion's weakness. But still they had come up with nothing.

"Something will turn up," the Doctor said, with his usual insouciant optimism, when they had run out of words. "It has to."

The Master had given him a dark glance and had said nothing. The Doctor's ability to look on the bright side was as foreign to him as day is to night, as was the other Time Lord's tendency to improvise on the fly. Methodical and coldly analytical, the Master usually had a plan that he scrupulously followed to the letter. Without one, he felt helpless and vulnerable, just as he had in the wasteland on Earth, after the debacle of his resurrection. Only this time it was even worse, because for the first time in nine hundred years he felt afraid for someone other than himself. He could not stop thinking of Tejana, her absence from the psychic link tearing at him like a rabid animal. But right now, when he needed it most, when he needed to save her, no clever plan came to him - no cunning twist, no devious ruse - just a sick fear in the pit of his stomach.

So instead he just sat, shoulder to shoulder with the Doctor, waiting to see what would happen next, desperately hoping for some sort of unexpected opportunity to turn things around. And, even though neither of them would ever admit it, as the long, terrible hours passed, each of them derived a strange comfort from the presence of the other, just as they had as children, during the difficult times in the Time Lord Academy so long ago.

At last, the door to the cell slid open and Martha stood there once more, accompanied by a platoon of undead humans, cruel mockery lighting her yellow eyes.

"_LEGION HUNGERS_," she rasped. _"NOW THAT THIS SHIP BELONGS TO THE MANY, WE SHALL FEED, TO CELEBRATE OUR GREAT VICTORY. TONIGHT WE SHALL DRINK A RARE WINE INDEED...THE DISTILLED ESSENCE OF THE LAST OF THE TIME LORDS_."

To the sound of the demon creature's unnatural laughter, the Doctor and the Master were dragged away by the zombies, leaving the cell empty behind them.

* * *

**- The Nether World -**

It was getting suddenly and dramatically colder the further they went. The air seemed to freeze around them, becoming so frigid that it physically hurt to draw it into their lungs. Wafer thin sheets of ice crackled across the murky surface of the swamp, while beautiful, intricate frost flowers formed on the yellow bricks of the path they were following. The eerie mist encircled them, trailing icy fingers across their skin, chilling them to the bone.

In the lead once again, with Martha close behind her, Tejana was becoming more and more worried. On the one hand, she guessed that the vicious cold meant that they were on the right track. Legion was definitely trying to discourage them from going any further, which was a very positive sign. But on the other hand, the danger to her companions had just increased a hundred-fold. The Nether World was not real. It was a dreamscape created by their combined mental energies and manipulated by Legion. Therefore, like everything else here, the crippling cold did not actually exist - it was made real only by their belief. However, Tejana knew that whatever the mind believed could easily kill the body, if the belief was strong enough. This place might only exist in their imaginations, but she had no doubt it was still possible to die here.

She turned and looked back at her companions. None of them had complained, even Lucy, who glared defiantly back at her, as if showing any kind of weakness would be allowing Tejana to win some sort of battle. But all their teeth were chattering, a light dusting of hoarfrost scattered through their hair and across their faces, like icing sugar on a sponge cake. Francine, dressed only in a light skirt and top, donned for her imaginary picnic in the park, was shuddering in the glacial mist, great trembling convulsions that wracked her from head to toe. Tish, dressed in a short red cocktail dress, was hardly faring any better. Martha and the two Torchwood women at least had jackets and long trousers, but Lucy was a pathetic sight in her thin, silk wedding gown, her bare arms blue with cold.

For a moment, Tejana toyed with the idea of using her own mind to fight Legion's control, to change the weather just as she had summoned the path. But, realistically, she knew it would take too much of her failing energy. Calling up the path had been a relatively simple matter – there had been no need to directly challenge Legion to make such a small alteration to the dreamscape. But to impose her will on the weather, when the demon was clearly using it as weapon against them...that was a much harder task.

But unless she did something, the small company would either have to turn back or they would freeze. Tejana thought hard. None of the women had strong enough minds to affect the weather. But it was possible they could still influence the dreamscape in a small way, if she could just get to them to understand the nature of the place and to focus.

"Listen to me," she said tensely. "I need you all to wish for warm clothes."

"What do you think I've been doing for the last half hour?" Lucy snapped. "How in God's name can that possibly help? Next you'll be asking us to believe in fairies."

"I don't mean just a vague fairytale sort of wish," Tejana retorted sharply. "This place is created from our minds. If you concentrate hard enough, you should be able to make the dreamscape work for you rather than against you. But it's something you need to do for yourselves. I can't do it for you."

"What exactly do we need to do?" Martha asked, immediately backing her up as always.

Tejana smiled at her friend, the unwavering faith in Martha's eyes bringing a lump to her throat. She just hoped she could live up to that burden of trust and bring them all through this alive.

"Firstly, you need to clear your consciousness of everything else – your mind needs to be a complete blank," she instructed.

Francine snorted loudly. "Well, _that_ shouldn't be too difficult for you, Mrs Saxon!"

Despite the debilitating cold, Tish couldn't help giving a small appreciative giggle, which she quickly stifled behind her hand. Lucy's eyes blazed in fury as she shot a dagger-like look at both of the Jones women.

"If we were back on _The Valiant_, you wouldn't _dare_ to address me in that manner!" she hissed arrogantly. "I'd have you whipped for your insolence."

"Well, we're not on _The Valiant_, are we, Your Majesty?" Francine sneered. "We're stuck in some freak alien creature's version of the Twilight Zone. So why don't you just shut up and do what you're told, so we can all get out of here?"

Lucy opened her mouth to reply, but Tejana cut in quickly, immediately recognising that the festering dissension between the women presented an even more deadly danger to the group than the insidious cold.

"Stop it, both of you," she ordered brusquely. "Fighting amongst ourselves is only going to help Legion. Keep it up and we'll _all _end up dead. Now, all of you, close your eyes and clear your minds like I told you. Then, you need to concentrate on one thing only, to the exclusion of all else – visualising warm clothes."

With a determined look on her face, Martha did as she was instructed, closing her eyes tightly. A frown of concentration scored her forehead as her whole body tensed, summoning and focusing her willpower. As the other humans watched in fascination, the air surrounding her seemed to shimmer and coalesce, forming and reforming until she was suddenly wearing a heavy, khaki-coloured anorak with a fur-lined hood.

"Oh, well done, Martha!" Tejana approved delightedly, giving her elated friend an enthusiastic hug. "Good girl!"

Witnessing the miracle Martha had achieved, the other shivering women began to try, with varying degrees of success. Quiet, shy Tosh mastered it easily, producing a luxuriously padded red parka in a matter of seconds. Tejana was not surprised. Under her demure exterior, Tosh hid a fierce intelligence and a will of iron. Gwen, Tish and Francine had a little more difficulty, but after some effort and encouragement, they all eventually managed to clothe themselves in winter attire. Soon, only Lucy was left, still shaking in the cold.

"Well?" Tejana queried in a hard voice, her eyebrows raised inquiringly.

Haughtily, Lucy closed her pale blue eyes and began to concentrate. Slowly, the familiar shimmering began to swirl around her body, her face contorting into a fearful grimace. There had been little previous need in her life for pretty, vapid Lucy Cole to exert her limited mental powers. The men in her life had always made her decisions for her – first, her stern, autocratic father, Lord Cole of Tarminster; then, after her marriage, her controlling, dominating husband, Harold Saxon. But she had been brought up as a member of the British upper class – she had an innate sense of her own superiority. She would never admit that she was unable to do something these ill-bred women had already achieved, especially in the presence of her hated rival. So, with immense difficulty, she pushed her mind harder than she ever had before, stretching herself to her absolute limit. Bit by bit, the tattered wedding dress disappeared, to be replaced by a pair of elegant woollen trousers and a tailored, cream-coloured cashmere jacket.

Francine's eyes flashed in contempt. She was obviously dying to say something derogatory about the expensive, designer clothing. But, at Tejana's warning glance, she managed to hold her tongue.

"Good," the Time Lady said curtly to Lucy. "Now let's get moving. I'm not sure how much time we have left."

* * *

**- The Hub, March 2013 - **

The silence in the central work area of The Hub was almost tangible, thick and dark and ominous as the tension mounted higher and higher, broken only by the taut sound of their own breathing and the rapid tapping of the Master's fingers across the keyboard. Finally, it came, the noise they had all been dreading, the unmistakable sound of the fierce blast of energy on the other side of the reinforced door leading down to the cells. All the lights began to flicker wildly.

"Oh my God," Amy breathed, the colour draining from her face. "She's reached the last door."

Jack swung around to face the two Time Lords. "How long?" he demanded.

"Master?" the Doctor asked in a low voice.

"I'm on the last code," the Master snapped. "It's the key to linking all the others, so he's used a very complex cipher to hide it. It's going to take a bit of time to break it."

"We don't _have_ a bit of time!" Jack retorted.

The Doctor turned his head slowly and looked at him. The Time Lord's face was bleak, almost desolate. "If she...if _it_ breaks through..." he said, his tone flat and empty. "You'll have to stop it, Jack. You're the only one who can."

Jack's eyes shot to meet his in horrified disbelief. "You can't mean what I think you mean!"

"Use your Time-fire," the Doctor responded precisely, making himself perfectly clear. "Erase it from Time."

"It! That's your _daughter_ you're talking about!" Jack exclaimed angrily.

"Not any more. Tejana's gone, Jack," the Doctor said tightly. "And the only chance we have to get her back...in fact, the only chance we have to save the entire Universe...is for the Master to reverse the temporal displacement and restore the causal nexus. We can't allow anything to interfere with that."

"If I wipe her out of Time, I'll destroy any small part of her that's left!" Jack protested hotly. "You said yourself you don't know the extent of my powers as the Temporal Nucleus. If erase her, how can you be sure that restoring the causal nexus will bring her back?"

The Doctor turned his face away, returning his eyes to the computer terminal. "I can't be sure," he said quietly.

Jack stared at him speechlessly, a roaring sound echoing in his ears, a terrible black nausea rising within him at the thought of having to be the one to obliterate the woman he loved, perhaps forever.

_Dear God, no, _he screamed silently. _Hadn't he been asked to do enough already in his life? He'd already had to kill his own grandson to save the Earth. How much more did he have to sacrifice?_

Behind the heavy steel door, Jack could almost hear Legion's hollow, mocking laughter, welcoming him into Hell.

* * *

**- The Nether World -**

The rocky outcrop appeared before them unexpectedly, looming through the frozen mist, a startling, somehow menacing eruption on the otherwise flat, swampy landscape. Glittering with ice, the yellow pathway led directly to the base of the strange hill, which was surrounded by a palisade of wooden stakes, like a medieval fortress, breached only by a narrow gateway.

"What is it?" Martha queried, her voice steady, as though she was no longer surprised by anything that materialised in this accursed place.

"The end of the yellow brick road, I'm guessing – Legion's equivalent of the Emerald City," Tejana replied wryly. "This is the place it didn't want us to find, the heart of its consciousness."

"What are those...things...near the entrance?" Tish asked, indicating twelve oddly-shaped black mounds, spread out at regular intervals along the path, six on each side, like a weird guard of honour.

Tejana felt a sick shiver of premonition. The strange shapes appeared to be draped in a sort of rough, hempen sack-cloth. Moving a few steps closer, Tejana caught sight of a string of polished wooden beads dangling from the nearest of the twelve mounds.

"Oh, stars!" she murmured, appalled. "They're not things. They used to be human, like you."

"What are you talking about?" Gwen demanded, alarmed by the creeping abhorrence in the Time Lady's voice.

"This isn't the first time Legion has been loose upon the Earth," Tejana said. "The first time was in the thirteenth century. It took over the Abbess of a convent as its primary host and then assimilated all the nuns. In the end, the Doctor managed to stop it by trapping it in a time eddy."

"So...what happened to the nuns?" Tosh quavered, speaking up for once.

"Their bodies died in the real world," Tejana replied grimly. "But their minds died in here, still lost in Legion's hallucinations. They probably never even realised what happened to them."

"Oh my God," Gwen exclaimed, horror-struck. "They're still holding their rosary beads. They were kneeling to pray when they died!"

Even as she spoke, a howling wind seemed to blow down from the rocky outcrop, whistling around the black-robed figures and sweeping back the cowls which concealed their faces. Twelve white skulls grinned at the newcomers, the dark, empty eye-sockets staring endlessly into the darkness.

Tish screamed shrilly, covering her face with her hands. Quickly, Martha put her arms around her, holding her close. A wave of black terror seemed to emanate from the coterie of dead nuns, reaching out for the small group of travellers, sending shadows of fear deep into their souls.

Tejana raised her eyes to the top of the rocky hill, searching it keenly. "Legion's trying to make us afraid," she said softly.

"Yeah? Well, it's working!" Gwen retorted.

Lucy took a few steps forward, coming to stand beside Tejana. "That's what we would have ended up like, isn't it?" she asked, her gaze fixed on the skeletal nuns, the stark realisation suddenly dawning on her. "If you hadn't broken the illusions we were caught in."

The Time Lady flicked an appraising glance in her direction. "Most likely, yes," she replied evenly. "Best not to think about it. Let's keep moving."

"I don't think I can," Tish shuddered. "I can't go near those things. Please don't make me. I just can't."

"You have to," Tejana responded inflexibly. "I know you're scared, Tish. Legion is purposely making you feel that way, because it doesn't want us here. But those poor nuns have been dead for centuries. They can't harm you. We're nearly at the end now - you all need to fight the fear and keep going. You're all strong women and I know you can do this."

Gritting her teeth against the invisible barrage of aversion, ignoring the dread crawling over her skin, Tejana turned and began to lead the way along the path, walking between the harrowing, soul-chilling skeletons.

Behind her, she could hear Francine begin to pray out loud in a dry, cracked, terrified voice:

"_Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name..."_


	27. Chapter 27

**_Author's Note: Hi there! Big thank you to everyone who kindly reviewed_ _the last chapter - broadwayb, OhTex, MayFairy, iLuvTwiBoyz, tardisandafirebolt, GallifreanGirl, Aietradaea, Omniac, Loopytoo, xxTeam-Masterxx, BeckyBoo12221, Riverbleu, babybluepineapple, SnowNinja123, Lost Moon, MG Atwood_ _and Beautiful Rogue_**.

_**Big thanks to GallifreanGirl and xxTeam-Masterxx for your lovely PMs, much appreciated.**_

_**Also, massive thanks to babybluepineapple for the detailed review you sent me via PM - I just adore detailed reviews, they get me all excited!**_

_**And last, but definitely not least, an enormous box of virtual cookies to Aietradaea, who surprised me this week by writing one of her Bloopersverse parodies of Chapter 26. For those who haven't read Aietradaea's Bloopers (trust me, you REALLY should) they are a behind-the-scenes look in parody form of how the characters feel about being put through the things us authors make them do in our fics. I personally find it hysterically funny and it was a huge thrill for me to find that she had written some for "Return to The Valiant". So, if you like this fic, please go and read it (and review!) - it's called "Time Waits for No Woman."**_

_**As for this chapter, so sorry it took me a bit longer than usual to publish it - what with it being the beginning of a new, busy year, my computer having a heart attack and breaking down on me for a week, and this chapter being horrendously difficult to write anyway...well, you get the point! Also, I'm really sorry that it is so short (OK, now I'm messing with you, it's actually obscenely long, so apologies to anyone who hates long chapters, but I didn't want to break it up).**_

_**Anyway, all that aside, here it is...and if you thought nothing else could go wrong for our heroes, you were wrong...dead wrong.**_

* * *

**CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN**

**- The Nether World -**

_Fear. _

Cold as ice. Sharp as a razor blade. Black as a starless night.

It was more than just an emotion, more than a state of mind. It was a disease, a filthy, hungry contamination which crawled from the bleached skeletons of the long-dead nuns; seeping from the bottomless pits of the hollow eye-sockets; leaking from between the fleshless jaws; trickling from the bony, claw-like hands, still clutching hopelessly at the rosary beads which had not been enough to save them.

Tejana felt the awesome weight of the psychic onslaught like an invisible living presence, a malevolent, pitiless passenger riding on her back. Knowing that Legion was intentionally generating the irrational fear did not help to lessen the effect – it roiled within her still, a fanged serpent coiling in her belly.

She could no longer hear Francine praying. Like her companions, the human woman had descended into an awful, choked silence.

"Martha," the Time Lady said urgently over her shoulder, aware that if the oppressive miasma of fear was this bad for her, it must be infinitely worse for the humans. "Martha, put your hands on my waist and don't let go. All of you, form a line behind Martha. Whatever happens, _do not let go_."

Tish moaned low in her throat. "I can't. I can't!"

"You can!" Tejana insisted, in a tone that brooked no refusal. "You can and you will!"

One by one, making a supreme effort, the women forced themselves to move into place, forming a bizarre conga line behind Tejana, each holding on to the hips of the person in front of them.

"Now close your eyes and walk!" Tejana ordered. "That's all you need to do – the _only_ thing you need to do. Just walk!"

As they began to move forward, shuffling like a convict chain gang, she purposefully dropped all her mental defences, opening her consciousness wide, acting as a psychic magnet. As she had suspected, the invisible tendrils of fear began to immediately abandon the other women, the insidious attack now centring and concentrating on her, targeting the strongest mind in the group and seeking to break her. The weird half-light seemed to darken, walls of icy mist closing in on her through the claustrophobic gloom. She had to fight for every step she took, every fibre in her being silently screaming at her to turn back, her feet growing heavier and heavier and heavier. The air in her lungs seemed to be too thick, curdled by dread, clogging her breathing like black treacle. She tried to concentrate on the narrow gateway ahead, but vile shadows danced and writhed at the corner of her eyes, continually drawing her gaze back to the dark figures kneeling beside the path.

_Oh gods, were the grinning heads turning, the empty eyes following them as they passed? Was that the sound of wooden rosary beads clicking, those ancient fingers stirring and flexing? Were the skeletons MOVING?_

Deliberately, she closed her eyes, shutting out the sight of the desiccated corpses. Better to walk in darkness rather than to allow Legion to infect her brain through her vision. A simple action, and yet one of the hardest things she had ever had to do, for now – shrouded in her self-imposed blindness - she could no longer tell if the nuns remained still or if they moved. Horror laced through her veins like poison. She had been afraid many, many times before in her long life, but never anything like this.

Praying herself now as she struggled onwards, not to any god, but instinctively reaching out with both hearts to the ones she loved the most.

_Koschei...Doctor...please, help me...I'm afraid...so very afraid..._

But the Doctor and the Master were both far away, lost to her, beyond her reach. There was no-one to help her, no strength to rely on but her own. And her friends were depending on her. She could feel Martha's hands warm on her waist, holding on tightly, the terrible strain evident in her rigid grip. Tejana thought of the trust she had seen earlier in her friend's eyes and she gritted her teeth in renewed determination. She couldn't let Martha down.

_Must fight the fear. Fight it! Never give in. Never, ever give in!_

She could feel her double heartbeat thundering wildly in her chest as she continued to advance, doggedly towing the heavy burden of the other women behind her. Incipient panic skittered down her spine, ears straining to catch any phantom sound, cold sweat beading on her skin under her heavy jacket. Step by step. One foot in front of another, over and over again, the rhythm of the mantra playing like a broken record in her head. _Never give in. Never, ever give in! _Slowly, blindly, stumbling onwards, the short distance to the gate stretching on and on and on, into a merciless eternity.

Until, suddenly, without warning, it was over. The shackles of fear, the heavy chains of horror, fell away as if they had never been, releasing her with an abruptness that was dizzying in its intensity. All at once she could breathe again, the constriction of her chest easing, her clenched muscles relaxing. It was as though she had walked into the eye of a devastating storm, a peace that was eerie and unnatural but none the less welcome for that. Opening her eyes, she saw that they had passed through the narrow gate and were standing at the base of the stony hill, within the encircling palisade of stakes. A burst of savage elation surged through her. They had made it.

"We did it," she said clearly to the others, her voice acute with triumph. "We're here."

As if waking from a daze, the women released their grip on each other, gazing up at the looming hill in bemusement. Then, together as a group, they all turned and looked back the way they had come.

None of the dead nuns had moved. But as the women watched, the arctic wind blew down once more from the top of the hill. The ground beneath the yellow brick road began to shake. The skeletons began to tremble within their rotting habits, creaking and swaying, until – one by one, like a row of macabre dominoes - they collapsed inwardly, the ancient bones crumbling into nothing more than a puff of dust. A myriad of fine cracks trickled along the quivering ground, growing and spreading as the shaking worsened, accompanied by a hollow rumbling noise far below the surface. The path twisted and buckled, erupting into pieces as a huge fissure opened up through the middle of it; a gaping maw which continued to widen, the surrounding earth collapsing and sliding and falling into the pit. Huge tongues of flame boiled up from the crevasse, consuming everything, until nothing remained of the landscape beyond the gate except a seething lake of fire.

Hastily, the small group of women took several steps back within the dubious safety of the wooden palisade, their eyes watering as they turned their faces aside from the choking cloud of brimstone wafting from the moiling pit of flame, making them cough and splutter.

"Well, that was dramatic," Tejana said dryly.

"But...now there's no way back," Lucy mewled, her lovely face crumpled in dismay as she stared out over the hellish red glow, stretching as far as the eye could see.

Tejana glanced at her incredulously. "Back to where, exactly, Mrs Saxon? Don't you get it yet? We're not in a physical place. We're inside Legion's mind. There never was a way back!"

"So now what?" Gwen asked, as Lucy subsided into a sulky silence. "We've reached the centre of its consciousness. What do we do now?"

Without answering, Tejana turned back to the hill, her gaze sliding up the sheer cliff that faced her.

"Is that it, Legion?" she shouted, her voice wild and raw and challenging, her anger rising through the mists of the Nether World. "Is that the best you can do? We're here! I've won, I've beaten you! We've reached the Emerald City! Now where are you? I want to meet the Wizard of Oz!"

"Look!" Tish gasped. "Up there!"

On the very top of the hill, silhouetted starkly against the eerie white light, stood a tall, faceless figure, dressed in a flowing, hooded cloak, as black as midnight. The creature's arms were spread wide, as if to encompass the entire flame-filled land, and in one hand it held the shaft of an enormous scythe, the viciously-curved blade glinting in the darkness.

Francine let out a low wail of terror and crossed herself. "It's the Angel of Death!"

Tejana kept her eyes fixed on the shadowy apparition and began to clap her hands slowly in sarcastic appreciation, each harsh crack ringing out with startling clarity in the still air. "Oh, very good, Legion," she called to the hooded figure. "First the fire and brimstone and now the Grim Reaper. Great look for you. Very appropriate." Then her voice hardened, taking on a tempered edge at least as sharp as Death's legendary scythe. "_Now, I'm TIRED of playing your pathetic games. So stop hiding away up there and face me, you gutless wonder._"

For a moment, nothing happened. The obsidian figure stood motionless atop the hill, looking out over its domain, its black cerements streaming behind it in the freezing wind. But then, it raised one dark hand in an eerie, beckoning gesture.

"_COME THEN, TIME LADY_," it rasped, its voice thundering down the hill. "_LEGION WELCOMES YOU – YOU AND YOU ALONE. COME AND MEET WITH DEATH_."

At these words, the cliff face shimmered and began to unfold into a white marble stairway, each step fanning out from the one above, extending in sweeping invitation until the last step burgeoned at Tejana's feet.

_Be careful what you wish for_, she thought, ruefully eying the intimidating flight of stairs, wondering what awaited her at the top. _Because you might just get it...especially in this place!_

She took a deep breath, swallowed hard and then turned back to the group. "You're in charge now, Martha," she said to her friend, her voice clipped and business-like. "Look after them for me. You should all be safe here, for now at least."

"No!" Martha protested fiercely, grasping her arm as she realised she was about to be left behind. "No way, not a chance! You're much too weak, Tejana. I won't let you go alone."

But Tejana shook her head, gently disengaging Martha's clutching fingers. "You heard Legion, you're not invited. Me and me alone. This something I have to do, Martha – you can't help me."

"But...that's _Death _up there!" Lucy cut in hysterically. "What happens to the rest of us if you don't come back?"

Tejana smiled coldly, amused at the human woman's blatant self concern. "I've met Death before, Mrs Saxon, many times. I fought alongside Him in the Time War and I still came back. There's no reason this time should be any different."

With that, she put her foot on the bottom step of the gleaming white staircase, her eyes locked unwaveringly on the dark figure at the top.

"Geronimo," she whispered and began to climb.

* * *

**- The Flight Deck, **_**The Valiant**_**, Christmas Day, 2008 -**

The clock on the wall read 11.29pm. Then, with a soft swish, the digital number changed. 11.30pm.

The Master watched, fascinated, out of the corner of his eye. He had never been able to resist a ticking clock. In half an hour, Christmas Day would be over. He wasn't sure why that was important, but somehow it was, even if it didn't look like he would be around to see it.

He could feel the hard, wooden floor beneath his knees, sense the warmth of the Doctor's presence beside him. They were kneeling side by side in the centre of the large room, facing the door.

_Clack. Clack. Clack. _The sound of Lucy's high heels rang in his ears, as she walked towards them in small, precise steps. Rough hands seized his hair, the zombie behind him brutally pulling his head back, forcing him to look at the woman who had once been his wife. Behind her, the other five possessed women – Francine, Tish, Gwen, Tosh and Martha – stood in a loose semi-circle, their yellow eyes fanged with hunger as they stared avidly at the two men.

The only other living person in the room was Jack. The handsome Captain was also kneeling, off to one side. He was surrounded by zombies, his hands and feet heavily chained. Lucy and her cohorts seemed to be keeping well away from him, the Master noted, his keen mind still searching for some sort of advantage, some sort of edge, no matter how small. It was odd, almost as if the freak made them nervous in some way. Of course, the man was completely and utterly wrong. His very existence was enough to set a person's teeth on edge. But somehow, the Master didn't think that was what was bothering Legion.

"_THE LAST OF THE TIME LORDS_," the demon hissed, circling them mockingly. "_AN IGNOMINIOUS END FOR SUCH A MIGHTY RACE, IS IT NOT_? _YET YOU MAY BOTH DIE CONTENT IN THE KNOWLEDGE THAT AS THE TIME OF YOUR PEOPLE PASSES AWAY, SO BEGINS A NEW, GREATER AGE...THE AGE OF THE MANY!_"

A cruel smile spread slowly across Lucy's perfect face as she glided around to face them once more. "_BUT WAIT..._" she said, as if a thought had suddenly struck her. "_YOU ARE NOT THE LAST, ARE YOU? THE GATHERING IS INCOMPLETE. THERE IS YET ONE MORE._"

With a theatrical, sweeping gesture, Lucy indicated the doorway. Beside him, the Master felt, rather than heard, the Doctor's tortured intake of breath. Across the room, Jack swore loudly. With a stab of pain, knowing what he was going to see, the Master also looked. And there she was, still dressed in the tattered remains of the elegant blue gown. His Ana - who was his no longer. He stared at her as she walked sinuously towards them, her unshod feet silent and cat-like on the polished floor. She looked the same as when he had last seen her and yet so incredibly different – wild, almost feral - the long, black hair curling down her back in an unconfined tangle; the wide, unblinking amber eyes; and the mesmerising silver patterns, coiling and dancing across her smooth, soft skin. To his horror, the Master suddenly found himself aching to touch her; hot, involuntary need pulsing through him as he imagined tracing his fingers over that intricate silver filigree, slowly sliding his hand up the long, bare leg revealed by the ragged slit in her skirt.

Lucy gave a deep, inhuman chuckle as Tejana came to stand beside her, waiting impassively for further instructions.

"_OH, BUT YOU ARE SO SILENT, DOCTOR," _the creature taunted. _"SO UNLIKE YOU! DO YOU NOT WISH TO BEG ME TO RECONSIDER? DO YOU NOT WISH TO EXTOL UNTO ME THE VIRTUES OF PEACE?_"

"I know a lost cause when I see one, Legion," the Doctor retorted in a low voice, his tone as close to hatred as the Master had ever heard it. "You said it yourself, the time for talking is long past."

Once more, the acoustic clicking of her heels rang out as Lucy moved to stand in front of the Master. Reaching out, she caressed his face suggestively, trailing her fingers down his cheek, clearly enjoying the way he flinched under her ice-cold touch.

"_AND AS FOR YOU, ARROGANT ONE...IT AMUSES US IMMENSELY THAT,_ _EVEN NOW, YOU STILL DESIRE HER. PERHAPS IT IS JUST AS WELL...SINCE TONIGHT, SHE WILL BE THE ONE TO DRINK YOU DRY, SO THAT YOUR ESSENCE WILL FEED THE MANY._"

Stepping back beside Tejana, the demonic creature surveyed the two Time Lords with sadistic malice.

"_BUT WHICH ONE WILL SHE DESTROY FIRST? HER FATHER...OR HER LOVER?_"

* * *

**- The Nether World -**

Reaching the head of the stairs, Tejana expected to end up standing on top of the windy stone hill. Instead, she found herself in a long, gloomy hall carved entirely of pure white marble. She gritted her teeth in an involuntary snarl. Once again, Legion had sent her stepping backwards through her memories, this time right back to the very beginning. She knew this place. This was the Sanctuary of Cold Lamentation, located in the very heart of the Time Lord Citadel. It was here that, at the age of eight, all young Time Lord initiates came to be inducted into the Academy. One by one, the terrified children had to walk alone through the freezing shadows of the enormous, echoing Sanctuary, until they reached the dais at the very end, where the Lord President sat on a regal throne. Each initiate had to kneel in obeisance, kiss the President's ring and solemnly recite the Vows of Induction: _I swear to protect the ancient Law of Gallifrey with all my might and brain. I will to the end of my days, with justice and with honour temper my actions and my thoughts._ Then the great doors behind the throne would open and the child would be escorted out to begin the long approach to the Untempered Schism, to face the unknown.

Such was the beginning of the bleak childhood endured by all Gallifreyan youngsters. Instead of wondering why children such as the Master went mad, it made much more sense to wonder why more had not. Looking down, Tejana saw that her winter jacket had been replaced by an acolyte's robe of fine white wool, just as she had worn that day so long ago – white for the girls and black for the boys. With a sickening lurch of her stomach, she cast her eyes down the sombre aisle before her.

She had stood here as a bewildered child, in this very spot, still grieving the death of her mother, abandoned by her father for reasons she could not understand, shunned and disgraced by most of Time Lord society, and yet still determined to be brave, to uphold the pride of her family in spite of all. With her head held high, she had traversed that long walk. With a steady voice, she had spoken those vows and she had remained true to them all her life. But in the end, all her pride and loyalty had mattered not one iota – Gallifrey had burnt anyway and now there was nothing left.

And, up ahead, seated on the imposing throne of the Lord President of Gallifrey, she could see Death waiting to greet her.

Once more lifting her head high, she began to walk.

* * *

**- The Hub, March 2013 – **

"Come on, come on, come on!" the Master muttered, a deep frown of concentration etched between his brows as his hands flew over the keyboard.

"Hurry up!" Jack shouted. "She's nearly through!"

The steel door was glowing a brilliant shade of cherry-red now, heat surging from it into the room as it began to buckle, an acrid burning smell permeating the air.

"I've...nearly...got...it!" the Master gritted out, typing even faster. Then he leapt to his feet with a howl of triumph as the last parameter slotted into place. "YES! Oh, I'm_ good_! The codex is complete. Now then, Doctor – all we need to do is to send the signal back to 2008 and trace the link to the transponder."

"And let's just hope we're not too late!" the Doctor responded grimly, hurrying forward to help him.

* * *

**- The Nether World -**

As Tejana approached the end of the long hallway, an unexpected trickle of odd amusement slid through her mind. As she had said to Lucy, she could not have fought in the Time War without establishing at least a nodding acquaintance with Death. But she had to admit, she had never thought to stand before His throne quite as literally as this.

The effect was grandiose, to say the least. If there was one thing Legion understood, it was how to intimidate. Even seated, the huge, black figure towered over her, the shadowy robes twisting and swirling like living, animated darkness, the razor-sharp blade of the scythe curving overhead in deadly promise. But worst of all was the absolute emptiness under the concealing hood. Where Legion's face should have been was nothing but an all-consuming, lightless void. Looking at it made Tejana feel as if she had suddenly been struck blind.

"_MY FELICITATIONS, TIME LADY,_" said the demon's familiar, gravelly voice. "_NO-ONE HAS __EVER REACHED THIS PLACE BEFORE. NO-ONE HAS EVER BEEN ABLE TO RESIST THE TEMPTATIONS OF THE MANY._"

Tejana's lip curled coldly. "Did you really expect it to be any different, Legion? You're not dealing with a fragile human now. I'm a Time Lady. And now, I'm on the inside, at the very centre of your being. By assimilating me, you just made the biggest mistake of your life."

"_PERHAPS,_" Legion allowed. "_IF YOU WERE STRONG. BUT YOU ARE AT THE END OF YOUR LIFE-CYCLE. YOU GROW WEAKER MOMENT BY MOMENT_."

"Don't fool yourself. I will do whatever it takes to defeat you and to save my friends."

"_SUCH LAUDABLE SELF-SACRIFICE FOR SUCH WORTHLESS ANIMALS!_" the creature laughed scornfully. "_THE MANY __WERE WATCHING WHEN YOU CHOSE TO FUSE WITH YOUR FORMER SELF. A FUTILE ENDEAVOUR, OF COURSE – EVEN THOUGH YOUR MINDS ARE NOW MERGED, THEY ARE BOTH STILL TRAPPED WITHIN MY DOMAIN AND BOTH BODIES REMAIN AT MY COMMAND. BUT ENTERTAINING, NONETHELESS._"

"My mind will always be more than a match for yours, Legion, merged or not," Tejana retorted. "And I want my body back."

"_THEN FIGHT ME FOR IT, TIME LADY_," Legion sneered. "_MEMORIES ARE THE WEAPONS OF THE SOUL. THEY CAN SEDUCE WITH PLEASURE, AS YOU HAVE ALREADY SEEN. BUT THEY CAN ALSO WOUND...AS YOU ARE ABOUT TO FIND OUT!_"

With that, the creature raised the great scythe and sliced it through the air. A piercing, ululating sound assailed Tejana's ears and she spun helplessly away into the darkness.

_All at once, she found herself somewhere else altogether. Grey walls encircled her, the same stifling grey walls that had given birth to her life-long claustrophobia. Her arms were shackled high above her head, the chains biting into her wrists. And in front of her stood Councillor Rohan, his eyes gleaming with salacious longing. Shuddering with disgust, she felt his hands pawing at her, sliding over her body, fondling her, slipping knowingly between her legs._

"_Submit to me," he whispered hoarsely, before slithering his tongue down her exposed neck._

_Tejana couldn't breathe. She was sinking into the depraved memory, suffocating, drowning, falling... until, without warning, her right ankle started to throb, the hand-print branded into her flesh searing and burning._

"_NO!" she shouted. "This memory doesn't have any power over me any more, Legion. The Master has already broken it into little pieces and you can't hold me here."_

Savagely, she tore her mind free and found herself back in the Sanctuary of Cold Lamentation, facing her enemy. At the same moment, she felt a terrible, slashing pain. Gripping her stomach in horror, she saw a long gash in her white, woollen robe, the snowy fabric already stained red as blood began to ooze from the deep wound in her belly.

"_FIRST BLOOD TO ME, I THINK_," Legion said in satisfaction. "_AND YET IT IS NOT BLOOD IN TRUTH, BUT LIFE-ENERGY, DRAINING FROM YOUR MIND. EVERY TIME YOU FIGHT ME, EVERY TIME YOU DRAG YOURSELF FREE OF THE MEMORIES, YOU WILL LOSE A LITTLE MORE, UNTIL YOU CAN NO LONGER RESIST AND YOU WILL SUCCUMB TO THE __ILLUSION. THEN YOU WILL BELONG TO THE MANY FOREVER._"

Before she could reply, the scythe fell once more with a sharp swish.

_Again Tejana heard the high-pitched sound and again she spun away, materialising in another hall – the Great Council Chamber on the planet of Trion. This time she was imprisoned in a Dalek containment field, watching her hated enemies marshal the people of Trion into long lines. She could hear the children crying. Oh gods, the children...always, always, forever and ever, she would hear the children crying. _

_Then the metallic voices in perfect unison: "EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!" _

_Laser blast after laser blast, the searing bright lights dancing through the room, vaporising line after line of Turlough's people, scattering them into ash. The screaming - the terrible, dreadful, unforgettable screaming - the sound of genocide graven in her ears._

Still hearing the heart-rending shrieks echoing in her ears, she ripped herself free, back into Legion's presence. Once more, pain streaked across her body, the copious blood flowing to colour her robe scarlet. But there was no time to catch her breath, no time to regroup, as the demon laughed evilly and gestured with the scythe again.

_Spinning and spinning and spinning...opening the TARDIS doors in the Hub, finding to her shock nothing but destruction, the devastation left by the hidden bomb which had exploded in Jack's stomach, knowing the obliteration of Torchwood was all her fault for not being there when her friends needed her most._

_The scene dissolving, reforming, until she found herself in the space cantina on the planet Zog, where three years ago she had finally located Jack, drunk out of his mind. Once again, she entered the bar, seeing him swaying on top of a table, drink sloshing in his hand, one arm around a red-skinned Aldebarian the other around a bald Marpesian, all three of them raucously bawling out a smutty sea-shanty. It would have been funny, except that she could sense the raw pain and torment tearing Jack apart inside and knew how very far from funny it really was. _

_And then he saw her, his look of crystallised anguish slicing right through her soul: "Well, what do you know?" he said bitterly. "Here she is, at long last. Gentlemen, meet Tejana...the Time Lady who came too late. Far, far too late."_

Summoning her will, she fought back, finding herself on her knees on the cold floor of the Sanctuary, moaning in pain as drops of scarlet blood fell from her wounds to mar the pristine white marble. Stubbornly, she forced herself to her feet, shutting out the pain, refusing to give in.

"_MORE?_" Legion taunted. "_BECAUSE THERE IS SO MUCH MORE...FOR A CREATURE THAT PROFESSES TO WALK IN THE LIGHT, THERE ARE SO MANY DARK MEMORIES, SO MUCH MORE HURT TO SUFFER...BUT WHICH WILL BE THE ONE THAT WILL ULTIMATELY CAUSE YOU TO FALL?_"

* * *

**- The Flight Deck, _The Valiant_, Christmas Day, 2008 –**

Lucy's head tilted coyly to one side, an insinuating smirk tugging at the corners of her rosebud mouth.

"_THE LOVER IT SHALL BE,_" she announced, her eyes sliding over the Master's face. "_THIS ARROGANT MASTER SHALL DIE FIRST, SO THAT THE DOCTOR MAY HAVE THE PLEASURE __OF WATCHING HIS DAUGHTER DRAIN THE MAN SHE LOVES. THEN, DOCTOR, YOU WILL FOLLOW. AND_ _TOMORROW, AS THE DAWN BREAKS OVER THE LAND BELOW, THE MANY WILL DESCEND AND WE SHALL FEED UNTIL WE CAN FEED NO MORE. THERE WILL BE WEEPING AND WAILING AND GNASHING OF TEETH, DARKNESS AND DEATH FOR ALL THOSE WHO DWELL UPON THE EARTH. THINK UPON THAT, TIME LORDS, AS YOU DIE TONIGHT, KNOWING THAT THE MANY CAN NEVER BE DEFEATED."_

"Rule number one when talking to me, Legion," the Doctor snarled. "Never say never."

"_OH, BUT COULD IT BE THAT YOU ARE STILL HOPING TO RESTORE THE CAUSAL NEXUS?_" Raising her slender hand, Lucy displayed before them a tiny black box, instantly recognisable as the Master's chrono-transponder. "_WITH THIS, PERHAPS?_"

In one swift movement, she clenched her hand around the small device, shattering it into pieces.

"NO!" the Doctor and the Master yelled simultaneously, seeing their only hope disappear into the wind.

A jeering smile spread across Lucy's face, avidly drinking in their evident consternation as she cast the ruined transponder carelessly aside.

"_PERHAPS NOT, AFTER ALL_," she said maliciously.

* * *

**- The Hub, March 2013 -**

"Something's wrong!" the Doctor exclaimed, frantically punching commands into the keyboard attached to the Rhondium Sensor. "The chrono-transponder isn't reflecting back the signal!"

Screeds of nonsense data began to pour across the screen, characters and numbers falling vertically like digitised rain, relentlessly erasing the codes the Master had so painstakingly uncovered.

"No!" the Doctor howled at the terminal, thumping it with his fist. "No, no, no, no, NO! Don't do that! Stop it, stop it now!"

Jack whirled on the Master, his eyes as deadly as a striking snake, his finger already tightening on the trigger of his gun. "What did you do? WHAT DID YOU DO?"

"It isn't me!" the Master spat, his own hands typing swiftly, trying to counteract the system collapse. "It's the transponder. It's been destroyed. The link has been broken. We can't get back!"

"Doctor!" Amy cut in urgently from across the room.

"Not now, Pond," the Doctor snapped, intent on the screen before him.

"It's kind of important!"

"WHAT?" he bit out, turning just in time to see Amy backing away as the smoking steel door trembled and bulged, before falling inward with a deafening clang.

"Oh," the Doctor murmured numbly. "That."

Tejana stood in the doorway, staring in at them with demonic yellow eyes, her face twisted in a contemptuous grin.

"_NOW, WHAT'S THAT CATCHPHRASE HUMANS TEND TO USE IN THIS SITUATION?_" Legion's voice rasped mockingly through the Time Lady's lips. "_OH YES, THAT'S RIGHT...HEEEEEEEEEEEEEERE'S JOHNNY!_"

* * *

**- The Nether World - **

Scene after scene from the Time War – the Nightmare Child, the Fall of Arcadia, the Battle of the Ramah Phalanx, her team burning and dying, the long fall into E-Space - slash after slash on her body as she obstinately dragged herself repeatedly out of Legion's pit, over and over again, refusing to yield.

Owen's death. Tosh's death. The Last Day of Gallifrey, the Citadel burning, her people dying, Rassilon condemning her forever as the child of a traitor. The Master's fingers slipping from her hand, as she contorted through the Time Vortex, leaving him behind to die in the ancient TARDIS. The Could-Have-Been-King's vision beneath the Isle of Avalon. And then, most recent of all, Damon's death as he gave his life to save her.

_Halfway out of the dark._

The young guard's last words shimmered around her, his ghostly voice whispering to her as she lay on the white floor in a spreading pool of her own blood, her eyes closed.

"_DO YOU YIELD?_" Legion demanded, all mockery long gone, replaced instead by thwarted anger.

Tejana smiled at the rage in the creature's voice, her teeth bared fiercely, knowing that the battle was not all one way. Just as it cost her energy to defeat Legion's visions, so it cost the demon energy to generate them, energy it could ill afford to lose.

"You think you can break me like this, Legion?" she taunted softly. "I'm one of the last of the Time Lords. We speak for the dead – our memories are the sum of who we are. I live with them every minute of every day. I never, ever forget. And when, finally, I am called to account for my life, it will not be to a second-rate, two-bit monster like you!"

Slowly, determinedly, she struggled to her knees, and from there to her feet, glaring at the demon-creature in undiminished defiance.

Legion threw back its head and roared in fury and frustration. "_THEN PERHAPS IT IS TIME TO GIVE THE SPEAKER FOR THE DEAD SOMETHING NEW TO SAY!_"

And again the scythe of Death rose and fell. With a sickening lurch, Tejana spun away, the high-pitched noise whining in her ears like a maddened mosquito. This time when she opened her eyes, she was back in her own body on the Flight Deck of _The Valiant_. She was standing beside Lucy Saxon and the Master and the Doctor knelt before her. To her horror, she realised she had no control over her body – Legion was allowing her to observe only.

"_WATCH THEN, TIME LADY, WHILE THE MANY USE YOUR BODY TO DESTROY THOSE YOU HOLD MOST DEAR,_" the monster said cruelly. "_AND_ _THEN, WHEN YOU SPEAK FOR THE DEAD, YOU MAY SPEAK ALSO FOR THE MASTER AND THE DOCTOR._"

* * *

**- The Flight Deck, _The Valiant_, Christmas Day, 2008 -**

Strangely, even in the midst of the demon's triumph at the destruction of the chrono-transponder, Legion seemed to falter. Lucy's brow creased in confusion, her head dropping, her breathing quickening, as though the thing possessing her was undergoing some internal struggle. Then the conflict appeared to pass and the creature's gaze sharpened once more as it surveyed the two kneeling Gallifreyans.

"_ENOUGH PROCRASTINATION,_" it snarled. "_THE MANY HAVE NEED OF YOUR ENERGY, TIME LORDS. AND IT IS NEVER GOOD MANNERS TO PLAY WITH YOUR FOOD._"

Moving back, Lucy gestured to Tejana. "_KILL THEM!_"

Obediently, her expression completely emotionless, Tejana stepped close to the Master, staring down at him with hard amber eyes. Her hands reached for him, not in love, as she had so many times before, but with murderous intent. The Master met her gaze and shook his head, his brown eyes glistening with unshed tears. For one brief instant, a gleam of midnight blue seemed to flash deep within the reptilian yellow gaze.

"Ana?" he said sharply. "ANA?"

But then the moment was gone and her eyes shone a pure yellow, as her grasp tightened on his head.

"_GOODBYE, KOSCHEI,_" she hissed.


	28. Chapter 28

_**Author's Note: Hey y'all! Thanks so much to the following people for reviewing the previous chapter - iLuvTwiBoyz, KlinicallyInsaneKoschei, OhTex, broadwayb, BeckyBoo12221, GallifreanGirl, RiverBleu, MayFairy, Catelly, tardisandafirebolt, Omniac, Aietradaea, babybluepineapple, Kaylie S, Lost Moon and MG Atwood. **_

_**Big wave to Catelly - hope you are having a better week this week!**_

_**Thanks to Lost Moon for continuing to review and for your interest in Tejana's background - there are a few more flashbacks in this chapter, not sure if that will help, LOL.  
**_

**_Another big box of virtual cookies to Aietradaea, who did another surprise Bloopers chapter for me based on Chapter 27 - you have no idea how much I enjoy those, you are such an amazing writer and an awesome person!_**

**_As for this chapter, my personal soundtrack for this one was "Dante's Prayer" by Loreena McKennit - it's probably the most beautiful and haunting track I have heard for a long, long time. In actual fact, that was the song that inspired this entire series, I think the words fit my vision of Tejana and the Master's story perfectly: "Then the mountain rose before me, by the deep well of desire. From the fountain of forgiveness, beyond the ice and the fire..." _**

**_Anyway, if you haven't heard it before, pull it up on Youtube and listen to it while you're reading the chapter - go on, I dare you!_**

**_

* * *

_**

**CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT**

**- The Nether World -**

"_KILL THEM!_"

Tejana's mind seemed to twist and diverge into two separate threads. At one level, she was still standing before the throne of Death in the Sanctuary of Cold Lamentation, her body crippled with pain, her white woollen robe scarlet and sodden with her own blood. But overlaying that, like a thin, transparent piece of glass, was her agonised awareness of what was happening on the flight deck of _The Valiant_.

Without volition, in obedient response to Legion's command, her body moved towards the Master. She could feel the demon's hunger surging through her veins, the insatiable need for energy, the perverted desire to kill. Desperately, she tried to regain control of her physical form, fighting Legion with everything she had, trying with all her strength to hold herself back from doing the unthinkable. But she was too weak. Legion blocked her easily at every turn, laughing all the while as more blood spattered from her wounds to stain the cold, hard floor.

Her hands reached for the Master in unrelenting determination, avid for his death. She looked into his face, his brown eyes meeting hers, full of aching regret.

"NO!" she screamed. "No, I won't do it."

"_YET YOU MUST_," Legion intoned, its tone dark with triumph. "_FOR THIS...THIS MEMORY THAT IS YET TO BE...THIS IS THE ONE WHICH WILL CAUSE YOU TO FALL. AND SO WILL BEGIN THE AGE OF THE MANY_."

"Koschei!" she cried, still struggling futilely as her hands moved against her will to grasp his head.

"Ana?" the Master called. "ANA?"

At the pleading sound of his voice, agony again ripped across her body, this time opening up a slash right across her hearts. Bright red blood pulsed steadily from the violent laceration, a wound both deep and mortal. With a sob, Tejana fell to her knees, darkness swarming at the edge of her vision.

"_GOODBYE, KOSCHEI,_" Legion jeered.

Feeling the life-energy ebbing from her in a flood, her mind dying by inches, Tejana could do nothing but watch as her hands tightened their grip on the Master's head. With a terrible certainty, she knew he was going to die. She was going to kill him and there was nothing she could do to stop it happening.

But then, unexpectedly, she felt a warm hand slide into hers and a clear, crisp voice said, "No."

With her last remaining strength, Tejana managed to turn her head. To her shock, she saw that the person kneeling alongside her was Lucy Saxon.

The human woman's eyes were closed and Tejana realised that she was concentrating, focusing her mind just as the Time Lady had taught her earlier, when they had all been wishing for warmer clothes. But this time, instead of concentrating on a designer outfit, she had only one thing on her mind – preventing the death of the Master. For, despite everything that had happened, despite all he had done to her, despite all that was destined to come, at this point in time, Lucy still loved him. He was the beginning and end of her world, the sunrise and the sunset, the only reason she continued to draw breath. And she would do anything to save him, anything in the Universe.

"NO!" she said again, her voice louder and firmer, every particle of her being, every obsessive ounce of her love for Harry Saxon, fixated on that one word, rejecting Legion with everything she had.

And with that, the charge of precious life-giving artron energy Tejana had given her earlier rebounded out of her body and surged back into the Time Lady through the fragile link of their joined hands. Only now, somehow, it had become _more_ - sheer power annealed with something of Lucy herself, Gallifreyan and human mingled together. Lucy had never been the brightest or most stable of women, but ever since she was a child, she had always believed intensely in the fairy-tale, in the happy-ever-after. It was an attribute the Master had recognised and manipulated from the very beginning. And now Tejana recognised it, as it flowed through her, tempering and refining the primal rush of artron energy – it was _hope_, pure and strong and so very _human_.

With a gasp, Tejana felt her body straightening, the dreadful wound over her hearts already closing, knitting together as though it had never been. United by their common purpose, their deep love for the same man, the two women knelt as one in that awful place, defying Death together. And on the flight deck of the mighty aircraft carrier, Tejana's hands raised and stilled, hovering over the Master's head, but no longer touching him.

Legion leaned forward on his throne and bellowed in fury. "_THIS IS NOT PERMITTED. THIS BATTLE IS BETWEEN US ALONE!_"

But even as the creature spoke, Tejana felt another hand slip into hers on the other side.

"NO!" Martha said calmly and quietly, following Lucy's lead, her mind also concentrating on the word to the exclusion of all else. Again, another stream of artron energy sluiced back into the Time Lady's body, this time enriched by Martha's defining quality, her courage. More of Tejana's wounds healed like magic, dissolving into nothingness.

"_THIS IS NOT PERMITTED!_" Legion howled again. "_IT IS NOT FAIR!_"

Nonetheless, one by one, the other women followed, joining their hands together, forming a link of steel with Tejana at the apex, her slowly-strengthening body absorbing the artron energy as it returned to her, powerfully transformed by the gifts of their humanity. From Gwen there came compassion, from Tosh a quiet strength, while Tish gave her steadfast loyalty and Francine contributed her gritty determination. And, one by one, the crippling slashes on Tejana's body healed, leaving her skin smooth and healthy and unbroken.

Her eyes dancing with joyous laughter, she climbed to her feet, still holding tightly to the hands of her friends, her body completely whole again as she faced the enraged demon.

"Oh, big mistake, Legion," she mocked. "Big, big mistake!"

* * *

**- The Flight Deck, _The Valiant_, Christmas Day 2008 -**

To the Master's amazement, he felt Tejana's grip on his head soften almost to a caress and then release altogether. Staring into her suddenly arrested face, he saw the tell-tale midnight blue flash through the yellow once more.

In response, Lucy roared like an animal. "_THIS IS NOT PERMITTED! IT IS NOT FAIR!_"

Slowly, very slowly, Tejana pivoted away from the Master to confront the other woman.

"_I AM THE LAST DAUGHTER OF GALLIFREY_," she rasped ominously, the demonic voice still grating between her lips. "_AND NOW, LEGION - YOU WHO ARE MANY - NOW, YOU SHALL ANSWER TO _ME_!_"

* * *

**- The Nether World - **

Hope. Courage. Compassion. Inner strength. Loyalty. Determination. All of them human qualities that Legion could never understand. Interwoven with the potent force of Gallifreyan life energy, they became a deadly cocktail the demon could not combat.

Drawing on her new-found weapon, Tejana's iron-hard will began to attack and erode the very fabric of the Nether World like a lethal virus, undermining the very foundations of Legion's shadowy dominion. All around them, the Sanctuary of Cold Lamentation started to shake, the pure white walls trembling and quivering, the blood-stained floor heaving beneath their feet.

"You're losing control, Legion," Tejana sing-songed in a provocative voice.

"_NEVER!_" Legion snarled, its dark hands clenched tightly around the tall shaft of the scythe as it fought to re-establish its mental ascendancy. "_THE MANY CAN NEVER BE DEFEATED!_"

"The Many are already no more," the Time Lady said coldly. "Watch and learn."

Reaching out with her mind, she found the invisible cord of shadow that bound Tish to the Nether World and severed it sharply. Immediately the human girl began to fade, her body becoming transparent before vanishing altogether.

"_NO!_" Legion shrieked in agony. "_MY NAME IS LEGION, FOR WE ARE MANY!_"

"Not any more, you're not!" Tejana retorted, slicing through the dark bonds which imprisoned Francine, Tosh and Gwen. Like Tish, their images also dwindled and disappeared, departing from the Nether World.

* * *

**- The Flight Deck, _The Valiant_, Christmas Day 2008 -**

Confronting Tejana in the centre of the flight deck, Lucy's face contorted in pain, a tormented screech erupting from her lips.

"_NO! MY NAME IS LEGION, FOR WE ARE MANY!_"

"What the hell is going on?" the Master asked the Doctor softly out of the corner of his mouth, careful not to draw attention to himself, the two zombies behind him still holding him motionless in an unbreakable grip.

"I don't know," the Doctor replied with equal caution. "But look at the other women!"

Behind Lucy's rigid figure, Tish seemed to shudder violently, her hands coming up to cover her face. Then, as the concealing fingers fell away, her eyes slowly opened, revealing dazed irises of a beautiful, deep chocolate colour, with no trace of the yellow of the Many. The silver patterns on her slender arms and across her face flared brightly for an instant before fading away completely. As the two Time Lords watched in astonishment, the same miraculous transformation happened to Francine, Tosh and Gwen. Apart from appearing totally disoriented and confused, the women were clearly normal again, free from Legion's control.

* * *

**- The Nether World -**

"Goodbye, Martha," Tejana said, reaching for the black thread that tethered her friend. "Thanks for everything."

"Wait!" Martha protested, tightening her grip on Tejana's hand. "What about you?"

Tejana smiled at her with sad eyes. "Look after the Doctor for me. And try not to be too hard on the Master."

"No!" Martha yelled. "Tejana..."

But it was too late. The cord was cut and Martha vanished back to the real world before she could finish her sentence.

Still holding Lucy's hand in a firm grip, the Time Lady levelled her gaze at Legion. The demon seemed to have shrunk, the grandiose figure of Death dwindling down to the size of a human adult, cowering back on the enormous throne.

"Now, Legion, you will free Lucy," Tejana commanded. The deadly black filaments were far too tightly wound around the human woman, entangling and ensnaring her. Unlike the other women, they could not be cut, they could only be released by the one holding her.

"_NEVER!_" Legion hissed. "_SHE IS THE HOST OF LEGION. THE MANY WILL NEVER RELEASE HER!_"

"Then you leave me no choice. I'll just have to make you."

* * *

**- The Flight Deck, _The Valiant_, Christmas Day 2008 -**

In a movement too swift for the other woman to counter, Tejana took three, quick steps towards Lucy's body and seized her by the head, just as a few moments before she had seized the Master, her yellow eyes blazing with an unholy fire. Lucy's face knotted into a brutal grimace as her own hands came up to clutch at the Time Lady's head in savage retaliation. It was a sheer, desperate conflict, unmitigated and raw, a colossal battle in which each physical manifestation of Legion tried to drain the other.

"_I WILL DESTROY YOU!_" the demon inside Lucy shrieked.

"_YOU CAN'T DESTROY ME, BECAUSE I _AM_ YOU,_" Tejana returned gleefully, her voice identical and indistinguishable from Lucy's. "_BY YOUR OWN CHOICE, I AM ONE OF THE MANY._ _ALL THAT TIME WE SPENT SEARCHING FOR YOUR WEAKNESS AND THE ANSWER WAS STARING US IN THE FACE ALL ALONG. THE ONLY THING THAT CAN DEFEAT YOU, THE ONLY THING THAT YOU HAVE NO DEFENCE AGAINST, IS YOURSELF._"

"_NOOOOOOOOOOOO!_" Legion screamed, feeling its control slipping even further. Frantically, it tried to fight back, but now the boot was on the other foot – Tejana was the strong one and Legion was the one who had been irredeemably weakened. "_NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!_"

Bit by bit, the demon's energy was siphoned away, until it could no longer hold on to Lucy's body. With a loud gasp, the human woman toppled out of Tejana's embrace and collapsed limply to the ground.

* * *

**- The Nether World - **

The invisible bonds entwined around Lucy fell abruptly away and she was free. Inevitably, she began to fade. Staring down at her rapidly dissolving body, her eyes widened in fear, the newly-strong woman once more replaced by the simple child the Time Lady was accustomed to.

"Tejana...?" she cried tremulously, in her terror seeking reassurance even from her enemy.

"It will be all right, Lucy, I promise," Tejana replied, watching as she disappeared altogether, thinking in sorrow of the ordeal the Master's wife had yet to face in Broadfell Prison. "Thank you for what you did. And I'm sorry, so sorry, about what is still to come."

Alone now in the slowly-collapsing Nether World, the Time Lady turned back to the imposing throne where Legion still sat. After the devastating loss of its host body, the dark figure of the demon had diminished again, shrinking down to the size of a ten year old child, the enormous scythe now nothing more than a tiny, pathetic toy. Looking at the forlorn creature, stripped now of all its might and power, Tejana almost felt pity for it. Almost, but not quite.

"So, just you and me now," she remarked matter-of-factly.

As she spoke, the shaking of the Sanctuary seemed to intensify, as though a gigantic earthquake was ripping through the hill beneath the marble hall. With a stunning blast of rolling thunder, the roof was peeled back like the lid of a sardine can, leaving the interior exposed to the frigid outer darkness. Massive cracks exploded through the ornately-carved walls, shattering the tortured stone into irregular chunks, which in turn collapsed into a choking cloud of dust and rolled away into the waiting maw of the lake of fire. Soon nothing remained of the ancient Gallifreyan building but the tessellated floor beneath Tejana's feet. She and Legion were left on top of a bare, windy hill, the only oasis in an ocean of glaring red flame, reflecting garishly against the unrelieved blackness of the sky. The flames were leaping higher and higher, consuming everything in their path, licking hungrily up the sides of the hill. Soon this last bastion of safety would fall too and the Nether World would destroy itself completely.

"_I WILL ESCAPE,_" Legion hissed feebly, its voice little more than a croak now. "_I WILL __ABANDON THIS PLACE AND LEAVE THE PHYSICAL REALM OF YOUR BODY. THEN WILL LEGION LIVE TO FIGHT ANOTHER DAY_."

"You can't," Tejana responded. "I won't let you. I'm going to hold you here inside my body until you are destroyed, Legion. I can't allow you to ever do this again."

"_THEN I WILL NOT PERISH ALONE. EVEN A TIME LORD CANNOT SURVIVE THOSE FLAMES - YOU WILL DIE ALSO!_" Legion said incredulously.

"I know," she answered calmly. "It's a price I'm willing to pay."

Beneath them, the ground shuddered and groaned as though it was in pain. The vivid tongues of hell-fire flared violently, closer and closer, the acrid haze of brimstone bringing tears to Tejana's eyes.

"_BUT_..._WHY?_" Legion demanded urgently, even as the throne it was seated on crumbled into dust.

Tejana glanced up at the icy, starless night stretching endlessly above them, the scorching heat from the approaching conflagration blazing across her skin.

"Maybe because I'm tired of always being only halfway out of the dark," she said softly.

And then at last the tortured earth opened up beneath them and, together, she and Legion fell towards the sea of fire.

* * *

**- The Flight Deck, _The Valiant_, Christmas Day 2008 -**

The Doctor saw Lucy's eyes suddenly flicker open, gazing up at the Time Lady standing over her. Tejana looked like a demon herself, her black hair streaming down her back, the silver markings on her skin writhing and coiling like live serpents, her eyes flaming yellow like the hellish furnaces at the end of the Universe. Obviously terrified, Lucy scuttled backwards, putting as much distance as possible between her and the creature that had so recently possessed her.

Horrified, the Doctor watched as his daughter threw back her head and screamed, a grotesquely obscene howl of pain. It was a sound that would haunt him for the rest of his life, coming back to him time and time again in his nightmares. A great, black pillar of energy swirled up from her head, spinning and spinning, faster and faster towards the ceiling until, all at once, it dissipated into nothing and Legion was gone. As one, all the zombies in the room flopped harmlessly to the ground, freeing their captives and reverting to inanimate dead bodies once more.

"ANA!" the Master shouted, surging forward, even as she too collapsed in a heap.

The Doctor never knew which of them reached her first. In the terrible aftermath of Legion's defeat, nothing that had gone before seemed to matter. In that one instant when Tejana had fallen, everything had been stripped back to its most primal, most basic elements. Nine hundred years of enmity seemed to melt away. All that was left was the fact that they both loved her.

She was lying face down, her tangled mane of dark hair hair spread out like a cloud around her, the beautiful blue satin dress little more than a rag now, carelessly rucked up around her long, bare legs.

Gently, his hands trembling, the Master turned her over. "She's still alive!"

The alien silver markings had disappeared from the skin of her arms and face, the signs of Legion's possession vanishing when the foul creature had been destroyed. She looked so peaceful, lying there in the Master's arms, almost as if she was sleeping. But with a wave of grief, the Doctor knew that she wasn't. Through the psychic link he could feel it, the terrible wound left deep inside, in the place where her reserves of artron energy had once been. There was nothing left, she had given it all to defeat Legion. There was no possibility of regeneration. She was dying.

"Tejana!" the Doctor cried, his voice choked with distress.

She stirred at the sound of her name, a small frown creasing the smooth skin of her brow. Slowly, her eyes opened, revealing the familiar deep pools of midnight blue, untainted now by the fiendish yellow of the Many.

"Ana!" the Master exclaimed, holding her close to him. "Ana, can you hear me?"

Her gaze locked on to his face and she smiled at him; a beautiful smile that held so much love that it was like a knife between the Doctor's hearts.

"Koschei," she murmured.

Tears ran unchecked down the Master's cheeks, his eyes frantic with pain. "It's going to be OK, Ana, I promise. I'll find a way to get us back home! I'll do anything, go anywhere you want, as long as we're together! Just don't give up. You have to stay with me!"

Weakly, her hand moved to hold his, lacing their fingers together one last time. "I will always love you, Koschei," she whispered, her voice already fading.

And then, looking deep into the Master's eyes, she said it - that one lovely, exquisite, melodic word; a word the Doctor had not heard for centuries, not since that long ago day when he and Melana had chosen it together over their daughter's cradle and had given it to her in a simple but profound Gallifreyan ceremony, both of them awed and astonished at the wonder of the new life they had brought into the Universe.

Her true name, representing all that she was, the very essence of her, the key to her hearts and to her soul. With her father as witness, without hold or reservation, she had just given herself entirely into the Master's keeping.

The look on the other Time Lord's face was one the Doctor had never expected to see there in a million years – a terrible, devastated mingling of love and agony.

"No, Ana! Don't you leave me! Don't you _dare_!" he yelled desperately, as her eyes closed again. "Ana! _ANA_!"

Stunned by grief, the Doctor felt her mind reach for his in a gentle, loving goodbye, an evanescent caress that slid through his consciousness like sparkling water falling through his fingertips. Then, with a soft sigh, she drew her last breath and slipped away from them into the eternal darkness from which neither father nor lover could ever call her back.

A strange sort of fog seemed to envelop the Doctor, a bewildered numbness that closed in on his mind, instinctively cushioning him from the all-consuming, crushing pain of loss. He was transfixed by the sudden, endless, aching emptiness inside him. He could not breathe or speak or move – and he wasn't sure he would ever be able to again.

Dimly, in the far-off distance, he was aware of the Master's long, drawn-out howl of rage and torment. As if through a misty veil, he saw the other Time Lord jump to his feet and run across to the smashed remains of the chrono-transponder, snatching the ruined device into his hands and frantically trying to fit the pieces back together.

"I won't let it happen!" he screamed. "I'm the Master! _ I'M_ _THE MASTER_!_ I won't let it happen!_"

Even cocooned within his protective haze, the Doctor knew that it was useless. The transponder was destroyed beyond redemption. There was no going back. Time could not be re-written, the causal nexus could not be repaired. Tejana was gone, forever lost to both of them.

And then, one by one, the bitter-sweet memories came, each of them scorching his hearts, each of them cindering his vitals, like the vicious stab of a white-hot poker:

* * *

_So long ago, facing the tiny, blonde girl, not yet eight years of age, her solemn blue eyes already too old for her elfin face, her little features pinched from trying to hold in the stormy emotions churning through her thin frame._

"_But WHY, Father? Why do you have to go?"_

_Feeling the pain, the sorrow of imminent separation, but knowing it couldn't be changed, knowing that his reason for running could never be explained to one so young. "I'm sorry, Tejana, but I have to. I don't have a choice. You'll understand when you're older."_

"_Then take me with you! PLEASE, Father!"_

_Her small hands gripping his, rigid with desperation, a childish attempt to hold on to him, to keep him with her, to never, ever let go._

"_I can't. I don't know where I'm going. It might be dangerous. You'll be safe here on Gallifrey."_

_Tears now, sparkling on her lashes, sliding down her cheeks. "But you're all I have! My mother is dead, there is no-one else! Please don't leave me! PLEASE!"_

_His hearts breaking, seeing the fear in her eyes, the dread of being left alone, but there was nothing he could say to her, nothing that could make things right. Drawing her close to him, holding her in his arms tightly, so tightly._

"_I'll come back for you, Tejana. I promise, one day I'll come back."_

_

* * *

_

_His second incarnation, staring in astonishment at the defiant young girl with the long, white-blonde hair who had just materialised out of thin air in the middle of his TARDIS console room. His companions, Ben and Polly and Jamie, looking on in complete confusion, not sure what was going on. Feeling the cold chill creeping up his spine as he saw the stolen Time-Ring clasped around her wrist, knowing how easily she could have miscalculated, how close she had come to scattering her atoms across the cosmos. So long since he had seen her and yet his first words, prompted by his fear for her, were spoken in anger, sharply chastising her for taking such a foolish risk. Contempt and rebellion reflecting in her eyes as she gazed at him, challenging his right to speak to her as a parent._

"_You promised you'd come back for me! All my life I waited, but you never came! So I've come to find YOU, Doctor, my so-called father, to look you in the face and to name you truly for what you are – nothing but a liar...a liar and a coward!"_

_

* * *

_

_His fourth incarnation, pausing outside the TARDIS on Gallifrey, ready to leave after preventing the Master from destroying the Eye of Harmony. Feeling smothered by the formality of his home world, hearing in his hearts the wild call of his renegade existence, preparing to escape back out among the stars. Tejana standing nearby in her scarlet and orange Prydonian robes, her face carefully blank as she waited to say goodbye, steeling herself against being left behind yet again. So different now, this Tejana, to the child who had once passionately begged him to stay. Her eyes cold and shuttered, her features closed against him, too proud to ask for what she craved, the love she so badly needed, already protecting herself from the pain of certain abandonment._

_Unfurling his hat, placing it jauntily upon his curly head. "Well, hurry up then! Can't wait around for you all day, you know! We've got places to go, people to see!"_

"_You mean...I can come with you?" Joy dawning in her eyes like the light of the rising sun, as she understood what he was saying, realising that he would take her with him after all, that he WANTED her... _

"_Come? Well, of course you can come!" Giving her his widest, toothiest grin. "You're my daughter! I wouldn't have it any other way!"_

_Spinning around, tossing his long scarf over his shoulder, striding for the TARDIS, content to know that she was following eagerly in his wake._

_Then her wry voice behind him. "You'll trip over that scarf one day if you're not careful."_

"_Nonsense! I'm the Doctor, I have perfect balance - I never trip!"_

_Falling forward as he tripped, catching the door frame of the TARDIS to steady himself, hearing her light, silvery laughter shimmering in the air around him._

"_No, how silly of me, of course you don't!"_

_

* * *

_

_Landing on a desert planet in his fifth incarnation, telling Tejana and Turlough to change into cooler clothes before they left the TARDIS. Tejana's cheeky, provoking look, her face lighting with mischief._

"_No problem. I think I've got an Amaatian bikini somewhere!"_

_His head jerking up from the console with a glare. "Don't you dare! Or I'll spank you and send you home to Gallifrey so fast..."_

_Her teasing laughter his only answer as she disappeared through the inner door into the depths of the TARDIS._

_Shaking his head in exasperation as he returned his attention to the console, muttering about the responsibilities of a wayward daughter._

_Turlough's curious glance. "Just what is an Amaatian bikini?"_

_Answering with a deep, long-suffering sigh. "Virtually non-existent. Which is precisely the problem!"_

_

* * *

_

_Sitting in the War Room on Gallifrey with the other Time Lords in the early days of the Time War, the newly-resurrected Rassilon sitting in state in the Lord President's chair, so recently held by the deposed Romana. _

_Seeing Tejana escorted in to stand before the new Lord President, her grey combat suit ragged and filthy, her usually abundant nut-brown hair roughly hacked short into a practical, military style. Recognising the savage despair in her face, knowing she had just deliberately armed a bomb and blown the entire planet of Trion to hell, together with the occupational Dalek force, fully expecting to die with them. She no longer cared whether or not she survived, just as long as she succeeded in annihilating the enemy she hated so passionately. The Time Lords, needing every last warrior to fight the War, had rescued her at the last instant, transporting her back to Gallifrey just seconds before the massive explosion had torn Trion apart._

_Watching her confront Rassilon with loathing etched across her weary, grime-smeared face. Seeing her head tilt sharply as she suddenly sensed him, her gaze slipping past the Lord President, unerringly finding him in the back row._

_Knowing beyond all doubt that the incredulous look in her dark eyes would stay with him forever, seared into his soul – the blaze of stunned pain and betrayal as she realised that he had been there, he had been part of it all, part of the decision to save her but to allow Trion to fall, to let Turlough and his people die in agony._

_Then, the frozen emptiness in her uncaring voice as she volunteered to lead a team of warriors into battle, right into the very heart of the Time War._

_

* * *

_

_Sitting on a London park bench, munching on chips with Rose. Suddenly feeling it, the first tentative stirrings within the long-dead psychic link, like the beautiful petals of a flower unfolding in the wilderness. The amazing, incredible, wondrous flare of joy as he realised he was no longer alone. The Universe, in its infinite mercy, had given him the most precious, the most hallowed gift, restoring to him the one person he had always loved the most, the daughter he had thought lost forever in the hell of the Time War. By some blessed miracle he didn't deserve, he had been granted another chance – a chance to be the father he had failed to be so many times before..._

_

* * *

_

He looked down now at the slender figure lying before him, his gaze clinging helplessly to her face - so peaceful, so absent, so devoid of the bright flame of life that that always burnt so intensely within her. He had meant it to be so different this time. He'd wanted to tell her how much she meant to him, how much he loved her, how she had always been the most important thing in the Universe to him. But there had always been so much happening, so much going on, so many problems to solve, so many people to save...the right moment had never arisen and still he had never said it. Now, it was too late all over again.

Lost in his haze of desolation and regret, he hardly felt the strong hands grabbing him by the lapels of his tattered suit jacket, hauling him brutally to his feet. The Master's eyes glared into his own, half-mad with grief.

"Bring her back!" he snarled, shaking the Doctor like a rag-doll. "You're the Doctor! The man who makes people better! BRING HER BACK!"

Face to face with his old adversary, both of them standing beside his daughter's dead body, something fundamental seemed to snap inside the Doctor. Uncontrollable anger swept through him like a forest fire. This was the Master's fault. Always scheming, always planning; always trying to take, to own, to rule; always seeking to devastate and destroy; always wanting to conquer and to win. And now, because of him, Tejana was gone forever.

"She's _dead_! You've _killed_ her!" the Doctor yelled, his rage boiling over as he shoved the Master in the chest with all his strength. "Even I can't bring the dead back to life, you idiot!"

Caught by surprise, the Master released him, losing his balance and stumbling backwards, his face twisted in pain and fury.

"Don't you get it? Aren't you _pleased_?" the Doctor continued relentlessly, hissing through his teeth as he bore down on his enemy and hurled him violently to the floor. "You've won! Congratulations, you've finally hurt me, damaged me beyond repair! Does it feel good, Master? _Tell me,_ _does it feel good?_"

The Master sprang back to his feet with the menace of a stalking panther, seizing the Doctor roughly and bringing their faces close together in a gesture of pure, unadulterated threat.

"I'm warning you, Doctor!" he gritted out, all rationality now gone from his savage, shattered expression. "I'll release the Toclafane. I'll kill every single person on the Earth. I'll shred the entire Universe if I have to! _Now, bring her back_!"

The Doctor stared at him, shocked at the abject suffering on the other Time Lord's face. Inexplicably, he felt the murderous anger drain away from him, to be replaced by an unexpected flood of compassion. He could still hear Tejana's voice in his head as she spoke of the Master, her tone so soft and full of tenderness: "_I love him. There is no-one else for me. I don't think there ever will be."_

"I can't, Master," he said brokenly. "I'd give anything to change it...but I just can't."

The Master stared at him, his eyes wild, one fist tangled in the Doctor's shirt-front, the other drawn aggressively back as if he intended to punch him in the face. Then, all at once, the fight seemed to go out of him and he went limp, falling helplessly to his knees beside Tejana's body, his legs no longer able to support his weight.

"She should have been my _wife_!" he cried bitterly, tears pouring down his face, his voice bewildered and almost child-like in his grief. "We were going to have a _son_!"

Kneeling beside his stricken enemy, his own face wet with tears, the Doctor took the Master in his arms and held him tightly, rocking him back and forth, sharing his pain.

On the wall above them, the digital numbers on the clock ticked over to 12.00pm and it was Christmas Day no longer.

And in the haunted silence of his mind, all the Doctor could hear was the Master's keening anguish as the other Time Lord realised that, after so many centuries of trying – plan after plan, weapon after weapon, defeat after defeat - he had in the end succeeded.

At last, at long last, he had finally managed to do something that the Doctor could not undo.

* * *

- Dante's Prayer -

When the dark wood fell before me,  
And all the paths were overgrown.  
When the priests of pride say there is no other way,  
I tilled the sorrows of stone.

I did not believe because I could not see,  
Though you came to me in the night.  
When the dawn seemed forever lost,  
You showed me your love in the light of the stars.

Cast your eyes on the ocean,  
Cast your soul to the sea.  
When the dark night seems endless,  
Please remember me.

Then the mountain rose before me,  
By the deep well of desire.  
From the fountain of forgiveness,  
Beyond the ice and the fire.

Cast your eyes on the ocean,  
Cast your soul to the sea.  
When the dark night seems endless,  
Please remember me.

Though we share this humble path, alone  
How fragile is the heart!  
Oh, give these clay feet wings to fly,  
To touch the face of the stars.

Breathe life into this feeble heart,  
Lift this mortal veil of fear.  
Take these crumbled hopes, etched with tears,  
We'll rise above these earthly cares.

Cast your eyes on the ocean,  
Cast your soul to the sea.  
When the dark night seems endless,  
Please remember me...

By Loreena McKennitt

* * *

**_Another Author's Note: _**

**_OK, just to let you know, I am now retreating to hide inside a purpose-built concrete bunker, just in case anyone (BUNNY included) wants to throw things at me. Let's be fair, I didn't kill the Master, did I?_**

**_** Laughs evilly and slams door of concrete bunker! **  
_**


	29. Chapter 29

**Author's Note: OK, I'm peeking out of my bunker to see if it's safe to come out...hmmmm, seems OK for now! Ooooh, and there's lots and lots of people to thank for reviews - GallifreanGirl, xxTeam-Masterxx, Loopytoo, BeckyBoo12221, The never ending drums, Kaylie S, iLuvTwiBoyz, tardisandafirebolt, Riverbleu, broadwayb, MayFairy, KlinicallyInsaneKoschei, Omniac, babybluepineapple, Lost Moon, yulicee, Geraldine, Aietradaea, BeautifulRogue, Mistress of Magic22, MG Atwood, Erikstrulove and crazychika495.**

**Specially big hi to my new reviewers: yulicee, Mistress of Magic22, Erikstrulove and crazychika495 - so awesome to hear from you, thank you so much.**

**Another big hello to Aietradaea - just for the record, everyone, having an amazing writer like Aietradaea appreciate my fic enough to pen one of her brilliant parodies based on some of my chapters is an awesome thrill. Her Bloopersverse parodies are a completely fresh and unique concept, unlike anything anyone has done before, and so, so much better than any parody I could ever write myself. So, you go girl, you are - and always will be - the Queen of Hilarious Parody!**

**And lastly, hi to Beautiful Rogue - in answer to your question, in my Whoniverse, Tejana never met Jenny, because she was on Earth with Jack when the Doctor, Donna and Martha went to Messaline. However, the Doctor dropped in to visit her back on Earth immediately after it happened, to tell her about it, which was when Tejana first met Donna. She then travelled with them for a little bit, meeting Agatha Christie and going with them to The Library, before returning to Torchwood. In The Library, she met River, who made some enigmatic "spolier" comments regarding some upcoming tension between the Doctor and Tejana over her future choice of relationships - but the Doctor simply assumed River was talking about Jack, never dreaming she was actually referring to the Master. I've got a couple of one-shots around somewhere that I wrote regarding this that I might turn into a story one day, who knows? Anyway, I hope that long-winded paragraph answers your question, LOL.**

**And now the chapter...not a huge one this time (hey, you've had two massive ones in a row!) because I have a bit of complicated personal stuff going on this week. Anyway, hope you enjoy...  
**

* * *

**CHAPTER TWENTY NINE**

**- The Hub, March 2013 -**

Amy stared at the heavy steel door, completely mesmerised. In the background, she could hear the Doctor, Jack and the Master talking in urgent, raised voices, but she ignored them. The door had her full and undivided attention. It was glowing so brightly now, such a beautiful deep cherry red – oddly, the colour reminded her of a book she had once had as a kid, which had a picture of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer on the front, his nose shining like a crimson beacon across the white snow. Even as she watched, the reinforced metal began to dissolve, running away from the molten red centre like tiny globules of quicksilver. The entire door seemed to twist and warp, as though it was alive and in pain.

Knowing full well what stood on the other side, a quiver of fear shot through her. "Doctor!"

"Not now, Pond!" he snapped, without looking around.

The door vibrated wildly, tendrils of black smoke seeping from the bulging steel.

"It's kind of important!" she yelled, starting to back away.

In angry impatience, the Doctor finally turned away from the computer in front of him. "WHAT?"

And with one final shudder, the door caved inward, slamming to the ground with a massive crash.

"Oh," the Doctor said. "That."

Tejana stood poised gracefully in the doorway, like a wolf about to spring, her yellow eyes gleaming with deadly amusement. Amy retreated even further, her heart pounding so hard that it hurt. She ended up standing between the Master and Jack, who had also both whirled around to face the demon.

"_NOW, WHAT'S THAT CATCHPHRASE HUMANS TEND TO USE IN THIS SITUATION?_" Tejana rasped maliciously. "_OH YES, THAT'S RIGHT...HEEEEEEEEEEERE'S JOHNNY!_"

Slowly and deliberately, she advanced into the room, her eyes fixed hungrily on her prey. But before she could reach them, Jack stepped forward and stood protectively in front of his three companions, his arms spread wide and his body already shimmering with white fire. Suddenly, with a sense of crushing awe, Amy understood why the Doctor was so concerned about Jack's newly-acquired power. He looked so beautiful and so unearthly and so utterly terrifying, all at the same time. Beside her, she heard the Master's sharply indrawn breath and realised that she wasn't the only one to be impressed.

"Get back!" Jack ordered, his voice ringing with authority. "You know what I can do, Legion...I've already obliterated one of your other satellite entities and I'll do the same to you, if I have to."

Coming to a halt, the Time Lady tilted her head to one side and surveyed him, a cunning expression crossing her lovely face.

"Are you going to kill me, Jack?" the demon asked, using Tejana's soft voice, sensual and hypnotic. "You told me that you loved me. And aren't you tired...so very tired...of killing the ones you love?"

"I...I..." Jack faltered, staring at her with suddenly haunted eyes.

"We both know you abandoned your little brother, on the Boeshane Peninsula. You left him behind to be tortured over and over until he went insane. That was your fault, Jack. And then, because of you, he killed our friends, Tosh and Owen – remember that?" Tejana crooned, steadily edging closer to him as she spoke. "That was your fault too, all your fault! And what about Ianto? Beautiful Ianto...you loved him but you were too much of a coward to tell him, weren't you, even when he was dying in your arms? And then, of course, there was Steven, poor little Steven. Your grandson, Jack, your own grandson, the boy you swore to protect – and yet you sacrificed him to save the Earth. Will you sacrifice me now too?"

Jack stood as though turned to stone, the poison in her honeyed voice sapping his willpower, her wide yellow eyes drawing him in and paralysing him.

"Don't listen to it, Jack!" the Doctor shouted warningly. "That thing isn't Tejana any more! Don't fall under its spell!"

"Are you going to listen to him?" Tejana asked, every syllable she uttered stroking the entranced Captain like a soothing lullaby. "The Time Lord doesn't care about you. He thinks you're wrong, Jack...he thinks you're a freak. He left you behind on Satellite Five, didn't he? Then he ran to the end of the Universe to try to escape you after you waited a hundred years for him. And he didn't come when you needed him most – he let Ianto and Steven die. Now he wants you to kill me, his own daughter, the woman you love. Can you do it, Jack? Are you prepared to lose me too?"

"I can't..." Jack choked out. "I can't kill you!"

"Then come to me," she whispered enticingly, holding out her arms to him. "Let me hold you. Give yourself to me. Let the power of the Temporal Nucleus flow into me and make me invincible!"

"No, Jack!" the Doctor roared, unable to get close enough to grab him, the shifting Time-fire creating an unpredictable and impenetrable barrier between them. "DON'T!"

But the Captain wasn't listening. Amy didn't think he even heard the Doctor's voice any more, his entire being totally concentrated on Tejana as he began to walk unsteadily towards her.

"JACK!" Amy shrieked in horror, realising they weren't going to be able to stop him.

Legion laughed in triumph, slavering in delight, already anticipating the sweet taste of Jack's soul. But then an expression of shock seemed to lance across the Time Lady's possessed face, a shudder of ugly awareness tearing through her body.

"_NO!_" she howled in the gravelled voice of the demon, a glittering field of uncontrolled electricity exploding in a powerful arc around her. "_MY NAME IS LEGION FOR WE ARE MANY!_"

Engulfed by the lethal wave of energy, Jack stumbled backwards, his aura of Time-fire extinguishing like a snuffed candle. His eyes were closed, his body limp – he was either unconscious or dead, Amy couldn't tell which. Reacting quickly, the Doctor leaped forward and seized him by the back of his coat, dragging him to safety.

Legion didn't even notice. The focus of Tejana's yellow eyes had turned inward, where a terrible internal conflict seemed to be ripping her apart. She threw her head back, a screech of ultimate agony boiling from her throat, searing across Amy's senses. "_NOOOOOOOO! NOOOOOOOOOO!_"

And then, without warning, an enormous black cloud of energy streamed from the Time Lady's nose and mouth. Rising in a filthy column above her, it spun madly in an escalating vortex, before scattering into dark wisps and vanishing completely. Tejana's body went slack like a broken puppet and fell bonelessly to the ground.

For a stunned instant, nobody moved. But then the Doctor left Jack's side and hurled himself across to her, calling her name as he went. Terrified that this was some sort of trick, Amy tried to catch his arm to hold him back, but she was too slow. Kneeling beside his daughter, he struggled to turn her over. Her eyes were closed. As they watched, the strange silver markings faded from her skin, leaving it smooth and unblemished.

"What happened?" the Master demanded, moving forward warily.

"I don't know," the Doctor responded tightly. "But Legion's gone."

A flood of relief washed through Amy with the force of a tidal wave. "Oh, thank God," she said. "And Tejana's going to be OK now, right?"

The Doctor didn't answer. Reaching out, he smoothed his daughter's dark curls away from her face, running the back of his hand across her pale cheek. Responding to his gentle touch, her eyes slowly opened, her midnight blue gaze settling on his face.

"She did it." Her voice was faint, almost thread-like. "Knew she could."

The Doctor leaned closer, to better hear what she was trying to say. "Who are you talking about, Tejana?"

"The future me," she replied. "The Tejana from your time-line. I met her...inside Legion's collective consciousness. We had to merge our minds...to prevent a paradox. She's wiped Legion out from the inside...used our combined psyche to hold it inside her body until it was totally destroyed. Which was a really good plan...except that now she and I are both dying."

Amy stared hard at the Doctor, waiting for him to deny it. After all, Tejana was a Time Lady – she couldn't die! The Doctor would never let it happen. Amy was sure that, any moment now, he would reassure his daughter that of course she was going to live. But instead, to her shock, tears gleamed in his eyes, his boyish face crumpled in grief.

"I should never have let you out of my sight!" he said gruffly, a terrible ache bleeding through his voice. "You always did have an amazing talent for getting into trouble."

"Wonder where I inherited that from?" Tejana joked weakly. Then her eyes softened, suddenly lost and vulnerable as they searched his intently. "When we merged our minds, I shared her memories...I saw what would have been my future. I saw you tell me that you loved me and that you were proud of me. You've never told me that before, not once, in all your incarnations."

The Doctor's face twisted in pain. "Tejana, I love you more than anything in the Universe. And I'm so, so proud of you – I always have been."

She smiled back at him, a sparkling tear running down her cheek. Then, her gaze sought and found the Master, as he stood watching nearby, his expression strangely tense. Her eyes wandered over his face almost curiously. "And you..." she murmured. "Master...I saw the future you give the future me your true name."

Amy had no idea what that statement meant, but to the two Time Lords it was obviously very, very significant. The Doctor stiffened, an incredulous look of utter disbelief flashing over his features, while the Master gave a reflexive jerk, his face whitening as though Tejana had just viciously stabbed him in the stomach.

"That...that's not possible!" he said flatly, shaking his head in denial.

A ghost of amusement pulled at the corners of Tejana's mouth as she registered his dismay. "And yet you did it," she responded, closing her eyes wearily. "And at the end of the day, her love for you was one of the main reasons she was able to defeat Legion. Guess I'll never know now what that sort of love feels like...pity, really..."

Her failing voice trailed away into silence and, with a chill, Amy realised that they were losing her.

Suddenly, in a rush of movement, Jack was there, brushing them aside and falling down beside her. "Tejana!" he cried.

Her eyes fluttered open again for the last time, finding and holding on to his anguished face.

"Jack," she whispered. "My Jack." Her lips curved into a rueful smile, the shadow of death cold now upon her soul. "I wonder...what we could have been? The Time Lady and the Temporal Nucleus...what a combination. Together...we could have...made the entire Universe tremble..."

"No!" he shouted wildly, as the light in her gaze flickered and went out. "Tejana, no!"

But she could no longer hear him, her midnight blue eyes staring up at him but seeing nothing.

* * *

**- The Flight Deck, _The Valiant_, Boxing Day, December 2008 -**

A hand fell on the Doctor's shoulder - a gentle touch, and yet insistent, demanding his attention. The Doctor tried to focus, but it was difficult. The Master was still now, unmoving in his arms, outwardly silent and exhausted by his grief. But inwardly, the keening lament from his mind still filled the Doctor's consciousness, blinding him to everything else, their pain mingling together as one.

Forcing himself to look up, the Doctor saw that the hand belonged to Jack. The Captain's face was bleak, ravaged by sorrow. As the Doctor slowly became more aware of his surroundings, he realised he could hear other cries of grief. The flight deck of _The Valiant _resembled a bloody battlefield, strewn with Legion's casualties, the fallen bodies of the erstwhile zombies piled in tumbled heaps all around.

Martha, Tish and Francine had discovered Clive Jones lying amongst the dead. Francine was cradling his body close and wailing loudly, while Tish hid her face in Martha's shoulder, both of them shaking with sobs.

Gwen and Tosh were kneeling beside Ianto and Owen. Gwen's face was ashen with shock as she stared down at her two fallen team-mates, while Tosh stroked Owen's hair and held his hand tightly, as if she expected him to wake up at any moment.

Lucy Saxon hovered close by, wringing her hands together over and over again in a repetitive, compulsive gesture. Her eyes were fixed yearningly on the Master, longing to comfort him, but apparently too nervous to close the short distance between them.

Jack tried to speak, but his voice failed him. Then, swallowing hard, he managed to say harshly, "What now, Doctor? Legion's gone, but what about the Earth? The Toclafane are still out there. We need to destroy the Paradox Machine."

The Doctor shook his head, trying to fight his way past the paralysing sorrow and to pull his brain back into gear. "We can't."

"_What?_" Jack exclaimed incredulously. "Why not?"

"Because the Master factored in the Paradox Machine when he enacted the temporal displacement, bringing himself and Tejana back in time," the Doctor answered. "He's created a paradox within a paradox. We can't destroy the Paradox Machine while he's still here in this time, because the causal nexus will become unbalanced and tear itself apart."

"I can fix that," a cold voice broke in.

Glancing up, the Doctor saw Francine Jones. From somewhere amongst all the bodies, she had managed to find a semi-automatic pistol and she was holding it trained on the Master, her tear-streaked face rigid with hatred.

"I'm going to kill him..._execute_ him, like he deserves!" she announced vehemently.

"No, Francine!" the Doctor protested. "That's not the solution!"

"Oh, I think so," she said. "Because all of these..._things_, everything we went through, all of these deaths, they all happened because of him. He _deserves_ to die."

To the Doctor's surprise, the Master's head came up in a violent jerk, his brown eyes burning with contempt and despair. Looking right at Francine, he began to laugh - a bitter, hollow, ironic sound, full of pain. "Well, how about that? Here we are again, full circle. Ana was right all along. I never had a hope of changing anything, did I? Go on then...do it. What does it matter now? _Do it!_"

* * *

**- The Hub, March 2013 -**

_She was dead._

The Master watched as the red-headed Pond girl reached out gently and closed Tejana's eyes, hot tears rolling down her cheeks. Suddenly he felt like he couldn't breathe, as though there was a huge stone on his chest, slowly crushing him. What the hell was wrong with him? It wasn't as if he cared that the Doctor's brat was dead. He'd tried to kill her often enough himself over the years. And it was an immutable law of the Universe that whatever hurt the Doctor only made the Master stronger. Why then didn't he feel stronger? Why did he feel as if somehow he had just unwittingly lost the last piece of his damaged soul?

A confused kaleidoscope of voices and memories whirled through his mind: _What did you end up calling her, Theta?...Ana, beautiful Ana...A__ccording to Miss Jones, we're going to be lovers very, very soon...And you love her, you really, really love her. For the first time in all those centuries, you actually have a real chance to be happy...__I saw the future you give the future me your true name...that's not possible...that's not possible...that's not POSSIBLE..._

Nobody in the Universe knew his true name. His parents were long dead and he had never even come close to confiding it to anyone else. He stared down at the dark-haired girl lying dead before him, his eyes drawn irresistibly to her face, trying to imagine what it would be like to let someone get that close to him, to trust someone with the very core of his being, to no longer be _alone_...

Confusion swarmed around him. His head hurt, his head hurt so _much..._the drums were pounding out a triumphant tattoo, louder than ever before, rejoicing in her death as though their purpose had at last been achieved, as though they had somehow won a great victory...

"Doctor...Jack...I'm so sorry!" Amy choked out.

The Doctor sat silently, gazing down at his daughter, a deep, puzzled frown etched into his brow, as if he wasn't even aware of what had just happened.

"Something she said..." he muttered abstractedly. "If I can just..."

"Doctor," Amy said gently, placing a hesitant hand on his arm. "Doctor, I'm really, really sorry, but...she's dead."

The Doctor didn't even seem to hear her, his face taut with concentration. But Jack's head turned slowly, like a stricken animal, until his eyes met the Master's. The Master knew hatred – he had lived with it all his life. A black seed of hate had entered his soul that long ago day in front of the Untempered Schism and it had grown like a disease until it had fully consumed him - it was his friend and ally, his strength and solace, his very reason for living. But the depth of the cold hatred in Jack's blue eyes was astonishing even to him.

"Yeah, she's dead," the Captain said flatly, rising to his feet. "And we all know who's to blame for it, don't we?"

With that, he began to glow again. The Master took a step backwards. He had no idea what exactly had happened to Handsome Jack in the five years since he had held him captive on _The Valiant_. But Tejana had said something before she died about him being the Temporal Nucleus. And the Master knew Time-fire when he saw it.

"Stay back, freak!" he warned. "Keep away from me!"

Jack bared his teeth in a savage grin as he began to walk forwards. "Not this time, Koschei! This time we're going to get _very_ close and personal!"

* * *

_**Another Author's Note: Hey, I didn't say I **wouldn't** kill the Master, now did I? **Laughs evilly again and rushes back inside concrete bunker!****_


	30. Chapter 30

_**Author's Note: **_

_**Hello, hello, hello...big thanks to the following people for reviewing the last chapter - babybluepineapple, BeckyBoo12221, Kaylie S, Erikstrulove, xxTeam-Masterxx, MayFairy, OhTex, iLuvTwiBoyz, GallifreanGirl, Catelly, Riverbleu, broadwayb, crazychika495, Omniac, KoscheithePianist, Lost Moon, tardisandafirebolt, Aietradaea, Beautiful Rogue, Ceville (x 2) and Geraldine. You are all amazing and wonderful people, thank you (even if most of you did throw things at me!)**_

_**Specially big hi to Ceville, my new reviewer - thank you so much and here's hoping you like it enough to continue reviewing ;0).  
**_

_**Now, a big drum roll...I am so, so excited. One of my longest-term reviewers, Omniac, was amazing enough to surprise me with a spectacular piece of fan-art a few days ago and I am just bursting to share it with you all. This is the url you need to paste in your browser: **_

**h t t p : / browse . deviantart . com /?qh=§ion;=&global=1&q=combatantno1# / d3c5pce (without the spaces, of course - **_**and if you can't get it to work, go to my profile page, there's a direct link there**_**).**

_**It's a picture of Tejana and the Master together and I think it's awesome. Seriously, if you like this story, you just have to check it out - just to see how hot the Master looks in black and red, if for no other reason! Thank you, Omniac, you have made not just my day or my week, but quite possibly my whole year! XXX**_

_**Also, if anyone is cranky that I took a while to post this chapter, you can blame this site, because it has been written for a while, but the FF site has been refusing to accept updates - I was starting to get a complex! Massive, massive thank you to GallifreanGirl, who told me how to fix it - you are an absolute technical genius!  
**_

_**Anyway, here it is, finally - wow, Chapter Thirty, that's BRILLIANT, I've never had a Chapter Thirty before!**_

_**

* * *

**_

**CHAPTER THIRTY**

**- The Hub, March 2013 -**

The Master had to die. No, not just die, that wasn't nearly enough. The evil bastard had died before, but he just kept on coming back. This time he had to be annihilated, completely removed from existence, wiped from Time itself. And Jack knew that he was the only one who could do it, the only one who could excise this filthy cancer that had been eating away at the Universe for centuries. If it was his destiny to be the Temporal Nucleus, then let it count for something - let him be the one to finally destroy the Master, once and for all. It was the only answer, so beautifully simple, so clear cut, so _black and white_...

_Black._ The colour of Jack's rage, his overwhelming hatred, his deep-seated desire for vengeance.

_White._ The colour of the cold, white Time-fire that writhed and flamed in his heart.

_Black. White. Black. White._ The only two colours in his world, there was nothing else, he wouldn't -_ couldn't_ - allow there to be anything else.

He knew Tejana was dead, but he wouldn't - _couldn't_ - think of that. Losing her was a vivid, excruciating splash of red, a boiling hot pool of agony he couldn't bear to immerse himself in, for fear that this time he would drown. Better, far better to concentrate on the insulating coldness of the black and the white, so much better to find a gelid anticipation in every menacing step he took, an icy pleasure in the fear in the Master's face as he backed away.

"No, Jack!" Amy shouted. "He's not even armed. You can't just kill him in cold blood!"

_Cold blood...? _Didn't Amy understand? That's exactly what Jack's blood was, burning cold with Time-fire, freezing and searing simultaneously as it sang through his veins._ Time-fire that had the Master's name written all over it._

Ignoring the red-headed girl, Jack continued to advance and the Master kept on retreating, backing away until he came hard up against a white-tiled wall and could go no further.

"Doctor!" Amy called urgently. "_Doctor!_"

But, kneeling at Tejana's side, the Doctor still didn't seem to hear and he did not reply.

"Afraid, _Koschei_?" Jack asked, using the other man's name mockingly. "You should be. I'm going to enjoy this."

"Kill me if you want, Harkness," the Master sneered defiantly. "It won't make any difference to the causal nexus. Tejana will still be dead. And you'll still be a freak. Nothing will ever change that."

"Oh, I'm not just going to kill you, you evil son-of-a-bitch, " Jack gritted out. "I'm going to _obliterate_ you!"

"Jack, Tejana wouldn't want you to do this, you know that!" Amy shrieked in a last ditch attempt to stop him. "She _loved_ him!"

It was absolutely the wrong thing to say. Jack felt an explosion of pure white rage, the pain detonating inside him like a nuclear weapon. "All the more reason," he spat. "If she hadn't loved him, she wouldn't be dead right now. So, end of the line, Koschei!"

And the glorious halo of pearly light encircling him began to pulse in perfect cadence with the savage beating of his heart, the deadly tendrils beginning to swirl and separate in obedience to his will, ready to engulf and destroy the defenceless Master.

Then, without warning, a mini-cyclone seemed to charge into his path. Startled, the enraged Captain realised it was the Doctor and he was in a tearing hurry. The Time Lord appeared to be completely oblivious to the tense situation he was interrupting, his face alight with jubilant triumph.

"_That's it!_" he shouted gleefully. "_EUREKA!_ Oh, that's magnificent - I've _always_ wanted to say that!"

Taken aback by his sudden - and completely oblivious - intervention, his three companions just stared at him, frozen in a shocked tableau.

"Jack's the _Temporal Nucleus_!" the Doctor continued, his voice bubbling with elation. "Oh, I've been so stupid, so very, very _thick_! I must be getting old! I've been letting my natural aversion to what he is blind me to the obvious!"

"Which is?" Amy ventured, clearly worried that the Doctor's grief had caused him to lose his mind.

"Don't you get it? Don't you _see_?" he continued, throwing his hands dramatically in the air in a gesture of impatience. "It's always been the eternal paradox of the Universe – the flux of Time abhorring the immutability of the Nucleus, but each unable to exist without the other, all in perfect balance."

"So?" Jack growled, resenting the interruption, wanting nothing more than for the Doctor to get out of the way. His entire body still thirsted for vengeance against the Master. He needed...no, he _ached_...to set the Time-fire free to do its cleansing work.

"So...as a Time Lord, I can easily manipulate the Time Vortex to create a Time Corridor linking 2008 and 2013 – but that doesn't help us, because without the Master's chrono-transponder, we're unable to exchange the past and present Master and Tejana without them meeting their doubles in the middle of the Corridor and causing a paradox which would destroy the Universe!" the Doctor responded, shooting the words out so rapidly in his excitement that he reminded Jack of a firing machine gun. "And you, as the Temporal Nucleus, can use your Time-fire to manipulate the Web of Time to bring two threads together, but you can't create a passageway between the two time-lines without ripping a hole in the Web. _But_, if the two of us combined – the flux of Time in conjunction with the Temporal Nucleus, the Time Vortex co-existing within the Web of Time..."

The Master's eyes widened as he suddenly understood what the Doctor was saying. "A corridor through the Vortex created from pure Time-fire – the only substance in the Universe able to contain the catastrophic effects of a temporal paradox," he exclaimed. "The repercussions from the paradox would be limited only to the two linked time-lines, thereby reversing the displacement, but leaving the rest of the Universe untouched!"

"And the causal nexus would be fully restored, just as it should have been before all this began!" the Doctor finished exultantly.

"You mean...we can bring her back?" Jack demanded, a sudden flare of hope beginning to warm the ice in his veins. "We can bring them all back?"

"You bet we can bring them back, every last one of them," the Doctor said, his face set in lines of utter determination. "Just like Tejana said, before she died – Time Lord and Temporal Nucleus, what a combination! You and me, Jack - together, we'll make the very Universe tremble!"

"At the risk of raining on your heroic little parade, that's all very well in theory!" the Master interjected sharply. "But you're not the one who has to chance walking through a corridor made of pure Time-fire, Doctor. That would be me. So what the hell makes you think I'm going to agree to do that?"

"Look around you," the Doctor said. "Look at the dust."

Puzzled by the comment, the Master, Jack and Amy all looked around, noting with surprise the large swathes of soft, grey dust blanketing the nearby work stations and sifting steadily across the floor of the Hub, dust that had not been there moments before. While the three of them had been caught up in the dramatic confrontation between Jack and the Master, everything had changed. None of the computers appeared to be working any longer, the terminals themselves slowly but surely crumbling into dust. Already the Hub looked as though it had been abandoned and untouched for years.

"Entropy," the Doctor said darkly. "You've seen it before, Master, on Logopolis. This time-line is eroding even as we speak. The process has been accelerated by the destruction of the chrono-transponder. We don't have long before it erases altogether."

Even as he spoke, a large chunk of ceiling fell to the floor beside them, exploding and disintegrating into dust as it struck the floor.

The Master flinched and swallowed hard. "All right, fine, point taken," he said hurriedly, his expression calculating as he ran his limited options through in his mind. "But nothing like this has ever been done before, in the whole of Time Lord history. How can you even be sure it's going to work?"

The Doctor turned and looked at his old enemy. Jack felt a shiver trace up his spine. He had known the Doctor for a very long time and they had shared a lot of bizarre and often terrifying adventures together. He had always respected and trusted and even loved the other man. But, until now, he had never had reason to feel afraid of him. However, in that transcendent moment, the usually unassuming Time Lord seemed to be ten feet fall, his eyes ancient and awesome and powerful in a young face turned impossibly grim.

"Because I'm the Doctor," he said in a voice as hard as stone, his tone denying all possible doubt or contradiction. "And because she's my daughter, and I'm her father...and whatever it takes, I'm _bringing her home_!"

* * *

**- The Flight Deck, _The Valiant_, Boxing Day, 2008 -**

"Give me the gun, Mum," Martha said cajolingly, carefully moving closer to Francine. "This isn't the way."

"He has to be _punished_," her mother retorted, the gun trained unwaveringly on the Master's head.

"You're better than him, Francine," the Doctor said quietly. "He's my responsibility. Put the gun down and let me deal with him."

Francine's lips quivered, tears rolling down her cheeks. Her hands started to shake and her fingers slackened on the gun, at last allowing it to fall with a clatter to the wooden floor, just as it had at the end of The Year That Never Was. The Master laughed again. He had no problem remembering what came next. And for the first time in his long life, he really wanted it...the peace, the darkness, the absence of being. All he wanted was for the pain to stop.

Pulling away from the Doctor, he swung around to Lucy. "Your turn now!" he snarled. "Go on, _darling_, pick it up. Shoot me!"

Shocked at his vicious words, Lucy took a step backwards. "B...b...but, Harry...what are you talking about? I love you. You know I could never hurt you."

"Oh, Lucy, you have no idea!" he taunted mercilessly, his face twisted in contempt. "Never is such a long, long time." Moving as quickly as a striking snake, he snatched the gun up from the floor and proffered it to her. "Go on, I'll make it easy for you. Take it! _Take it!_"

Lucy gave a frightened squeak and cowered away still further, her hands hidden behind her back like a bewildered child.

"Master, stop," the Doctor remonstrated in a soft, soothing voice. "Just stop. Enough people have died today."

"You still don't get it, do you, Doctor?" the Master retorted bitterly, his body taut with menace, his hand tightening on the handle of the gun. "Now that Legion is gone, this ship is still mine. The Archangel Network and the Toclafane are still mine. But without her, none of it means anything. So I have nothing to lose. If you don't kill me, I'm going to set the Universe on fire, just for the sheer pleasure of watching it _burn_. Because if I'm going down, I'm bloody well going to take the rest of you with me!"

The Doctor edged slowly towards him, his eyes fixed on the gun. "Master, please..." he began.

But before he could complete the sentence, he was interrupted by a shrill, terrified scream. Both of the Time Lords whirled around, to see the others looking in fear, not at the Master, but at Jack. The Captain's tall, emaciated body had stiffened, his spine ram-rod straight, and his eyes were eerily ablaze with incandescent white fire.

"What the hell?" the Master murmured incredulously.

"Oh God, look at his eyes! Look at his eyes!" Francine cried out. "It's that creature. It's back!"

"Doctor, what do we do?" Martha demanded, her arms closing protectively around her mother.

"It's not Legion," the Doctor said. "That's Time-fire! Jack! Jack, can you hear me? What's happening to you?"

"I can hear you perfectly, Doc, I'm not deaf," Jack grinned cheekily. "Don't worry, I'm fine. Except that I'm not the Jack you know - I'm the Jack from the future, from 2013. I'm just sort of...borrowing my own body in this time to communicate with you."

The Doctor stared at him in astonishment. "But...how?"

"Long story, too little time," Jack replied. "In short, in this time-line I'm now the Temporal Nucleus and I can bend the Web of Time."

Unsure what to think, the Doctor shot an urgent, inquiring look at the Master. The other Time Lord nodded slowly, his eyes narrowed assessingly as he gazed at Jack. "It's true," he confirmed. "In our time, the Temporal Nucleus got destroyed. Captain Freak took its place at the centre of the Web."

"Saved the Universe," Jack added with his usual cheerful arrogance. "And with any luck - and with a bit of help from the Doctor from this time-line - I'm about to do it again. Now, listen carefully, because this is the plan..."

* * *

**- The Hub, March 2013 -**

Amy couldn't help watching Jack anxiously as he sat unmoving on the floor, the ocean blue of his eyes completely submerged in the phosphorescent white glow of Time-fire, his mind far away in another time.

"Are you sure he's OK?" she queried.

The Doctor glanced up from where he and the Master were finishing wiring up two head-sets, one from each TARDIS, borrowed and quickly adapted from the Chameleon Arch devices. Long wires ran back to the control room of the Doctor's TARDIS, where the two Time Lords had attached them to the underside of the console, to enable direct access to the Time Vortex. The entropy dust was much more extensive now, cascading down the walls in slow, steady streams, swirling across the floor in thick, deep eddies. Every now and then, a piece of furniture would collapse and crumble like a dried-out sand-castle in the sun, leaving behind an arid pile of dust.

"As OK as anyone can be with Time-fire eating through their veins," the Doctor replied tersely. "Fortunately Jack's no ordinary man."

The Master gave a quiet snort of contempt. "I don't envy you, having to link your mind with that freak," he said acidly. "The question is, will you be able to stand it for long enough? Because if the corridor collapses before we can reach our future selves, both Tejana and I will be wiped out of Time forever. We'll never have existed. And who knows what effect that will have on the causal nexus?"

"I know," the Doctor replied in a flat tone. He was aware it wasn't going to be easy. Jack had felt wrong enough before, when he was just a fixed point in time – wrong enough that the Doctor had run away from him as far and as fast as he could rather than having to deal with him. Now that he was the Temporal Nucleus as well...the Doctor remembered the intense distaste, verging on abhorrence, he had felt on the Isle of Avalon when faced with the loathsome black obelisk which had been the original Nucleus. The thought of allowing that abomination into his mind made him feel physically ill.

Gritting his teeth, he continued, affirming it out loud to himself as much as to the Master, "I'll hold on for as long as necessary." Then, raising his head, he gave the other Time Lord a keen look. "Oh, and Master...? You may as well know, I've removed components from both TARDISes, so they're both out of action. So don't even think about trying to escape from this time-line when Jack and I put on the head-sets, OK?"

"Who, me?" the Master replied with sarcastic innocence. "As if I would."

"Yeah, right," the Doctor said. "As if you would."

As he spoke, the Time-fire faded from Jack's eyes and he was back with them again. "They understand," he told them hoarsely, climbing to his feet. "They'll be ready."

The Doctor nodded and handed him one of the wire-linked head-sets. "Let's do it then, before this time-line implodes altogether."

Like two gun-fighters in a Wild West show-down, the Doctor and Jack faced each other, leaving a relatively wide distance between them.

"Ready, Master?" the Doctor asked.

Bending down, the Master effortlessly lifted Tejana's limp form into his arms. "Ready."

"Amy, make sure you stay well clear," the Doctor instructed.

"Good luck, Doctor," Amy said, tears glistening in her eyes. "You too, Jack."

Jack straightened into a martial posture and gave her a crisp salute. "Ma'am."

"OK then...geronimo, everyone," the Doctor said resolutely.

And simultaneously, he and Jack donned the head-sets.

* * *

_Frozen flames swept through the Doctor's consciousness, blindingly white, sickeningly other, completely alien to his fundamental nature. It burnt and froze at the same time, like the cold fire that blazed in the heart of a diamond. It was pure and hard and clear and dazzling and yet it was anathema to him, snaring him in place, seeping through him like poison, rotting him with corruption, befouling the centre of his being with filth. His first instinct was to scream in horror and to fling it away from him as far as it would go; he wanted to run and run and run to escape it, to the very ends of the Universe if need be; to hide under any available rock, in any secret crevice, until the shudders in his soul eased._

_Instead, he held himself utterly still, opened his mind wide and welcomed it in, allowing it to transfix him like an icy crossbow bolt between his hearts._

_

* * *

_

_Jack saw into eternity. Spiral after endless spiral of blue light, the raw, terrifying power of Time and Space laid bare before him – all that was, all that is and all that ever could be, gyring and twisting through the never-ending night of the Vortex, never stopping, always shifting, always fluid and changing, the flux of Time tearing him apart into billions of pieces, fragmenting him through the Universe._

_It was like a blasphemy, excoriating the fundamental solidity of his nature. He wanted to dig in his heels, to resist the pull, to cling like a limpet to his immutability, to his unchangeable perpetuity._

_Instead, he surrendered his will and allowed the spinning Vortex to take him where it would, like a fragile leaf caught in a devastating whirlpool._

_

* * *

_

It started out as nothing more than a glittering point of light, hovering between the two men like an infinitesimal fire-fly. The Doctor and Jack stared at each other, each man looking fixedly and yet unseeingly into the eyes of the other, their faces contorted in frozen agony. Amy shivered – they reminded her of two Weeping Angels, forever quantum-locked together, each unable to move while impaled by the other's gaze. But as she watched, the tiny, floating, evanescent sphere began to elongate, steadily growing and unfurling, until it resembled an undulating curtain of light, stretching like a bridge of energy between the Doctor and Jack, a dimensional rent opening a shining doorway into a corridor of pure Time-fire.

"That's my ride," the Master said sardonically, settling Tejana's still form more securely in his arms. "Looks like this is good-bye for now, Miss Pond." Turning his head to look at her, he gave Amy a cold, mirthless smile. "But before I go, you've been so _very_ free in your advice to me...now let me give you some. Enjoy travelling with the Doctor while you can. Because one day soon, it will all be over. Oh, he makes you feel special now, makes you feel like you're the only one in the Universe that means anything to him – that's his unique talent, one he's had since childhood, to make every companion, every _friend_, feel like they're the best and the brightest. But in the end, he'll leave you behind, because that's what he always does. And when he goes, he'll never, ever look back. And that's when you'll finally understand that you were never any different to the countless others that came before you. Think about that, won't you?"

Before Amy could respond, he gave her a quick wink and stepped through the shifting screen of white fire, taking Tejana with him as he vanished.

* * *

**- The Flight Deck, _The Valiant_, Boxing Day 2008 - **

The Doctor and the Master stood together in front of the glittering curtain of light that had suddenly materialised in the middle of the flight deck. The Master held Tejana cradled protectively against his body, her tangle of dark curls flowing loosely over his shoulder.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" the Doctor asked in a low voice. "If that corridor collapses while you're in there..."

"This is _your_ idea, remember?" the Master retorted gruffly. "Even if it is the future you. Anyway, don't tell me you'd miss me if I was wiped from Time?"

"I doubt it...but we might both be surprised," the Doctor grunted. Then his eyes wandered to his daughter's lifeless face. "Besides, whether I like it or not, we're sort of family now."

The Master gave an abstracted half-nod of acknowledgement, also looking down at the Time Lady in his arms. "I told her that once she chose to stay with me there would be nowhere that she could go that I wouldn't find her and bring her back," he said harshly. "And that's exactly what I intend to do."

He took three steps towards the shimmering gateway, before looking back over his shoulder. "Goodbye, Doctor. Until we meet again."

Then he merged with the light and was gone.

"Yeah...until we meet again," the Doctor echoed, his brown eyes tense with anxiety.

* * *

**- Inside the Time Corridor -**

The man with no name stared around in surprise. _What a peculiar place_, he thought to himself. He seemed to be standing in a long, empty corridor with soft, white, glowing walls. He had absolutely no idea where he was. Actually, come to that, he had absolutely no idea _who_ he was. Puzzled, he racked his brain, trying to remember his own name, but with no success. It was as though the refulgent white light had somehow sucked the memories right out of his head.

Feeling a weight in his arms, he looked down. For some strange reason he didn't understand, he was carrying someone. It was a woman. She had a slender body with long, black, curly hair and delicate, fine-boned features. She was dressed in a ragged blue gown and her eyes were closed. His eyes dwelt on her face, an odd longing washing through him. He was sure he had never seen her before, but all at once, he found himself desperately wishing she would open her eyes and sit up. With a chill, he realised he couldn't see her chest rising and falling as she breathed. She was dead.

_He was standing in some weird corridor holding a dead woman and he had no idea who he was or what had happened._

Gently, he laid her on the ground and looked down at himself, searching for a clue to his identity. He was wearing a dark suit with a white shirt and dress shoes. His clothes were damp and torn, his jacket and trousers filthy with soot and covered in what appeared to be scorch marks. None of it rang any bells whatsoever.

He looked down the corridor, trying to guess where he had been heading. There was nothing much to see, except that far away, down the very end of the passageway, a silver-blue light gleamed. It seemed to beckon to him, calling him to him, a silent but insistent summons. He began to walk, suddenly sure that he would find the answers he sought within that distant light. However, he had not gone very far when he stopped and looked back at the slight figure of the woman, still lying on the white floor where he had left her.

This was wrong. _He_ was wrong. Whoever she was, without her in his arms, he felt somehow...incomplete. Not knowing exactly why he did so, he retraced his steps and knelt beside her. Impulsively, he stroked his fingers down the soft skin of her cheek, almost expecting her to nestle into his hand, as if she had done it many times before. But she remained motionless. With an inexplicable feeling of disappointment, he picked her up again, feeling the comfort of her weight in his arms as he began to walk towards the light once more.

As he went further, the hard surface of the floor began to give way to soft, golden sand beneath his feet. The bright white walls faded into the blackness of night. Overhead, stars twinkled in beautiful clear constellations he somehow knew that he should find familiar, even though he did not. A path was marked out in the sand in front of him, punctuated at regular intervals by burning braziers, the warm yellow flames dancing in the night. At the end of the path stood a huge circular disc, like an enormous mirror, ornately edged in bands of copper and gold, held perpendicular by a stone bracket at its base. Embedded in the ground before the disc was a flat round tablet, deeply engraved with a strange figure-of-eight symbol.

The man with no name stopped dead in his tracks, an awful feeling of apprehension tearing at him. There was something about that big disc, something about that serpentine symbol. This place was evil, full of hatred...pain...betrayal...loneliness...insanity...

Heavy iron bands seemed to tighten around his chest, suffocating him. _He shouldn't be here...he should never have come here! Not __again, not ever, ever again! _ Clutching the woman closely to him like a shield, he began to back away, his mouth dry with fear.

But the silver-blue light swirled again within the dark centre of the disc, calling to him, just as somehow he knew it had done once before, a long, long time ago. Faintly, in the silence around him, he heard a drum-beat, a subtle, insidious rhythm of four, just like a double heartbeat.

_One...two...three...four... One...two...three...four... One...two...three...four..._

Without even being aware that he had moved, the man with no name found himself standing on the stone tablet, staring into the spinning vortex of light, his eyes wide and entranced. And at that same moment, suddenly emerging through the light on the other side of the disc, another man appeared, directly opposite him. The new arrival had neatly-trimmed brown hair and chocolate-brown eyes, narrowed in fierce concentration as they stared back at him through the surface of the disc. He was also wearing a suit, but his was unmarked and immaculate, his white shirt crisp and pristine, his dress shoes polished and glossy. And in his arms, he also held a woman. Her long black hair was confined in a tightly-braided plait and she wore a black leather waist-coat over a white top and black, fitted trousers. With a shock, the man with no name realised that she was an exact double of the woman he held so carefully in his own arms. Curiously, he looked into the unknown man's eyes – and at once he found everything he had instinctively sensed and feared about this place. Hatred. Pain. Betrayal. Loneliness. Insanity. A virtual kaleidoscope of tortured darkness in the other man's eyes, pulsating to the deadly rhythm rising all around them.

_One...two...three...four... One...two...three...four... One...two...three...four..._

The moment seemed to stretch on for eternity, each man intently measuring the other through the shimmering surface of the disc, the pounding of the drums echoing incessantly through the air, growing louder and louder and louder. But as the man with no name looked and listened, all his fear fell away and a strange certainty took its place. There was nothing here that was important to him, nothing that he needed, nothing that he wanted. At last he knew what he had to do.

Holding his future securely in his arms, the Master stepped towards his past and moved through it and beyond it, leaving it behind him.

As he walked through the silver-blue energy at the heart of the disc, there was a violent, dazzling explosion of white light all around him, as though every star in the heavens had simultaneously gone super-nova.

And the entire Universe trembled.


	31. Chapter 31

**_Author's Note:_**

**_Hello! As always, a great big pile of wonderful people to thank for reviews: GallifreanGirl, MayFairy, Omniac, broadwayb, Aietradaea, tardisandafirebolt, KlinicallyInsaneKoschei, iLuvTwiBoyz, BeckyBoo12221, Lost Moon, Mistress of Magic22, MG Atwood, babybluepineapple, Loopytoo, xxTeam-Masterxx, OhTex, Geraldine and Ceville. You are all awesome._**

**_Not much to say today, expect that I got so excited about Omniac's fabulous fan-art last time, I forgot to add that she was also the inspiration for some of the Master's dialogue in the last chapter - very talented lady, isn't she?_**

**_Also, a big wave for Seileach, SnowNinja123 and Jiwa, if you are still reading...and I hope you are ;o)._**

**_Getting near the end now...the next chapter will be the last. Enjoy!  
_**

* * *

**CHAPTER THIRTY ONE**

**- _The Hub_, March 2013 -**

_Cold white light exploding, burning like fire, freezing like ice, swirling around him in an endless vortex, pulling him down. A deafening rushing noise, filling his ears like the sound of a thousand waterfalls pouring endlessly over a thousand cliffs. Clinging tightly to the woman in his arms, refusing to let her go, even as everything receded, being sucked into the heart of the churning white maelstrom, falling and falling and falling, forever and ever and ever..._

Then...nothing. Silence.

Warily, he opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was two blue police boxes, side by side, identical in every respect.

_My TARDIS_, he thought to himself, a little dazedly. _Mine and the Doctor's. Bloody stupid Chameleon Circuit._

And in that moment, he remembered it all.

_I am the Master_, he told himself, inwardly rejoicing in his restored knowledge. _I am the Master!_

Belatedly, he realised he was back in the Torchwood Hub, dressed once more in the black hoodie and black jeans he had habitually worn since his time in the wasteland on Earth. He was standing close to the Rift Manipulator, facing a tall, young-looking Doctor with floppy brown hair, wearing a tweed jacket and a bow tie. In one hand the Master held a small, black device, which he was in the process of displaying triumphantly to the other Time Lord. His other arm was firmly around the waist of a woman with long, loose, black curly hair, holding her hard against him in a possessive embrace.

_Ana!_

With a gasp, he threw the chrono-transponder as far away from him as he could, before turning the unresisting Time Lady towards him, his eyes desperately raking her face for signs of life. Her eyes were closed, her features relaxed and unresponsive.

"Ana," he said hoarsely. "ANA!"

But she remained limp in his arms and nothing happened. Frantically, he shook her by the shoulders. "Ana! I brought you home, just like I promised. The causal nexus has been restored, everything's back the way it was before. Ana, you have to wake up _now_!"

She didn't move. A dizzying sickness rose within him, a downward spiral of failure. It wasn't going to work. Reversing the temporal displacement hadn't helped. She was still dead. He had lost her and it was all his own fault. With a groan of anguish, he fell to his knees, still fiercely holding her to him, never wanting to let go. In the distance, he heard the Doctor yell, "Tejana!" and then vaguely felt the other Time Lord throw himself down to kneel beside him.

"Ana, _please_," the Master begged, hardly even knowing what he was saying any more. "_Please!_"

And just then, as if she had finally heard him, the long black lashes quivered and a deep sigh escaped her lips. Slowly, her eye-lids fluttered open, the midnight blue eyes focusing with some difficulty on his face.

"Hey," she murmured with a sleepy smile, taking in the two anxious faces looking down at her. "What's up?"

Overwhelmed with emotion, the Master couldn't answer, the sudden savage joy in his hearts choking his voice. Instead, he held her even closer, almost crushing the breath out of her, while the Doctor gave a shout of pure elation.

Tejana frowned, struggling in the Master's arms until he reluctantly loosened his hold a little. "What?" she demanded crossly. "What's going on?" Then, glancing around, she seemed to realise where they were, an expression of wonder lighting her face. "Wait a minute...this is the Hub. We're back? The temporal displacement is reversed? We're really back?"

The Doctor laughed happily. "You're really back!" he confirmed. "Welcome home!"

Her eyes brightened, but then flashed suspiciously, her gaze suddenly fixed on the Master's face. "If this is one of Legion's stupid hallucinations..."

"It's no hallucination," the Master replied reassuringly, forcing the words past the lump in his throat. "It's real."

Her hand came up, her slender fingers stroking down the side of his jaw. "But...you're crying," she said uncertainly. "You're the Master...you never cry."

With a shock, he realised that it was true. He had tears on his face he had not even noticed were there. Feeling the warmth of her touch, a touch he had thought he would never feel again, he gave an involuntary, wordless exclamation of pure thanksgiving and lowered his lips to hers, exulting in the precious life he felt throbbing in her quickening double heartbeat. The kiss was fierce and deep, his tongue twining insistently with hers, his hands tangling in her hair, the slow familiar heat beginning to burn between them. Her mouth instinctively softened, accepting and welcoming the dominance of his, wanting and needing him as much as he wanted and needed her. And, at last, the suffocating pain inside him began to ease, lessening with every breath she took. Everything was going to be all right. She was alive and she was his. With his customary ruthlessness, he silently vowed he was never going to let her go again, even if he had to chain her to his wrist.

"Ohhhh, don't mind me," the Doctor's irritable voice cut in, as he plonked himself down on a nearby chair. "I'll just sit here and wait until you're finished, shall I? Maybe I could count sheep or something, to pass the time. Boring things, sheep. I've always wondered why humans bother to count them - especially imaginary, not-really-existing-except-in-the-mind kind of sheep. Why would anyone want to numb their brain like that, I asked myself. But now I think I understand exactly why."

Tejana pulled away from the Master's embrace, her pale cheeks stained with embarrassed colour as she looked at her father, whose existence she had apparently temporarily forgotten. The Master allowed her to break their kiss, but he didn't relinquish his possessive hold on her. His lightning-fast mind was, as usual, three steps ahead, his eyes narrowing as he too regarded the Doctor. He had Ana back from the dead, but he knew that was only half the battle. Now that the causal nexus had reverted, he was a prisoner here in the Hub once more, with the doors in lock-down mode and his TARDIS out of action. And he still had no intention of being confined within the Doctor's TARDIS for the rest of his life, much less leaving Ana behind on Earth with Captain Freak. He had lost his cunning back-up plan, but he did have one more ace up his sleeve and he wouldn't hesitate to use it.

"You've been crying too," Tejana said to the Doctor, eyeing him closely. "What the hell is going on?"

"You were dead, Tejana," the Doctor replied, his face tight with the memory.

"Dead!" she exclaimed in shock. "Was I? Are you sure?"

"As a door-nail," her father answered bluntly. "You died destroying Legion, in both time-lines. Restoring the causal nexus brought you back."

"But...I remember it all," Tejana said, wrinkling her forehead. "_The Valiant_... and defeating Legion inside the hive-mind...and the fire burning higher and higher...and then falling into the flames and it hurt, it hurt so much..." Abruptly, she broke off, clearly not wanting to relive that part of her adventures. "If the causal nexus has been restored and none of it ever happened, why do I remember it?"

"The temporal displacement originated from here," the Doctor explained with a shrug. "It's another case of being at the eye of the storm. The 'Year That Never Was, That Never Was', so to speak. As Time Lords, the three of us, in this time-line, will be the only ones who ever know what happened."

Before Tejana could answer, the door to Jack's office was thrown open with a huge bang, startling them all. Jack erupted on to the landing, seizing the railing and staring wildly down at them. "TEJANA!" he yelled, before leaping down the stairs, taking them two at a time.

"Or possibly the four of us," the Doctor amended wryly.

* * *

When Jack had opened his eyes after the excruciating, scintillating explosion of white light, he had found himself staring up at the familiar, grubby ceiling of his office. He was lying on the shabby old couch, just as he had been before the whole temporal displacement thing had happened. Abruptly, he sat up and looked down through the glass wall to the floor of the Hub, hope tearing at him, almost afraid of what he would see. _Had it worked? Had they brought her back?_ He could vividly remember what had happened last time – he had awoken and seen a brown-haired Master facing off against the Doctor, his arm in a choke-hold around Tejana's throat, his laser screwdriver threateningly pointed to her head. This time around, things were very different. Down below, he could clearly see a blonde-haired Master kneeling on the floor. Tejana was in his arms, but far from threatening her, he was kissing her passionately.

But just for once, Jack didn't care what the Master was doing. All he cared about was that Tejana was alive again. Joy and relief surged through him in an uncontrollable tidal wave. Jumping up he ran for the door and ripped it open, throwing himself out on to the landing, needing to reach her, needing to _hold _her, to convince himself this was real. She was alive, not lost, not gone forever like Ianto and Steven. She was _alive_!

"TEJANA!" he shouted, seeing her glance up at him. Then he was running down the stairs like a crazy man.

Before the Master could do anything to prevent him, Jack reached them and tore Tejana from the Time Lord's arms, snatching her close to him and spinning her around and around in an insane dance of joy, kissing her over and over again. "You're alive! YOU'RE ALIVE! We did it! We really did it!"

Out of the corner of his eye, Jack saw the Master jump to his feet, deadly fury blazing across his face. He looked as if he was barely restraining himself from pulling out the laser screwdriver and murdering Jack for the eight hundred and eighteenth time. Jack felt a savage burst of triumph deep inside, adding a whole new dimension to his elation. The Master had lost. His big plan had come to nothing, his empire crumbled into dust and ashes yet again. He was powerless, trapped and helpless within the Hub. And now, one way or another, Tejana would be back where she belonged. Feeling the soft warmth of her in his arms, he couldn't resist twirling her around all over again.

"Put me down, you big idiot!" she laughed breathlessly. "Honestly, Jack, no-one would ever guess you were nearly two hundred years old!"

"Well, you needn't think I'm going to let you out of my sight any time soon!" he retorted, setting her lightly on her feet. "You reckon I was a tough boss before? Well, you ain't seen nothing yet!"

To his dismay, the laughter drained out of her face and she took a step backward, away from him. "What are you talking about?"

"When you come back to work for Torchwood," he replied arrogantly, as if it was a foregone conclusion. After all, it wasn't as if she had a choice, not after everything the Master had done.

Tejana shook her head slowly. "Jack, I'm not coming back to Torchwood."

Jack's chin came up, his entire body stiffening dangerously, unable to believe what he was hearing. "You can't seriously want to stay with _him_, after everything that's just happened?" he snapped. "You just _died_ because of him, Tejana!"

But Tejana just kept backing up until she stood once more in the protective curve of the Master's arm, her delicate features shadowed with regret. "I'm sorry, Jack."

The Master pulled her close to him and smiled, his brown eyes hard and taunting as they rested on the immortal human he hated so much.

Jack stared at Tejana incredulously. "You're not going anywhere with him," he gritted out. "Not this time. I'm not going to let you."

Temper flared hotly in her eyes. "You don't have the right to tell me what to do, Jack Harkness."

"No," the Doctor intervened calmly. "But I do. I'm your father. And I still have the temporal limiter from the Master's TARDIS. Nothing has changed."

"That's where you're wrong, Doctor," the Master said flatly. "Because everything has changed. Tell him, Ana. Tell him what you did."

"I...I...," she stammered, caught by surprise, the words seeming to stick in her throat. "I...can't..."

"Do it!" the Master ordered, his voice lashing out like a whip. "Or I will."

The Doctor gazed at her in sudden concern. She seemed to be having trouble meeting his eyes. "Tejana? What's he talking about?"

She flicked a look back at the Master, who raised his eyebrows and nodded encouragingly. Then, facing her father proudly, she took a deep breath and said, "I gave him my true name."

Puzzled, not understanding what was going on, but not liking the victorious look on the Master's face, Jack turned and glanced at the Doctor. The Time Lord seemed to be frozen, as if he was paralysed by shock, the look on his face caught somewhere between pain and sorrow.

"Just as I've given her mine," the Master added.

"What true name?" Jack demanded angrily. "What the hell does that even mean?"

"It means that, by Gallifreyan custom, she's no longer subject to his authority as a father," the Master said with cold satisfaction. "And it means that she belongs to me in a way you'll never understand, Harkness. Isn't that right, Doctor?"

The Doctor didn't immediately reply. His eyes were locked on to his daughter. Tejana met his gaze without flinching, her eyes pleading. For a long, long moment, father and daughter stared at each other, as if some sort of extended silent communication was passing between them.

Then, not taking his eyes away from her, the Doctor said, "It means Tejana has made her choice and there's no going back."

"Yes," Tejana answered softly and firmly. "I have."

There was another long pause. But then, his expression tight but unreadable, her father nodded slowly, as if he had made up his mind.

"So, Doctor," the Master said, an unmistakeable note of challenge in his voice. "What now?"

Before the Doctor could answer, the door opened and Amy and Martha entered the room. Amy was fiddling uncomfortably with the tight bandage on her wounded shoulder, while Martha was looking down at the mobile phone in her hand. Jack had an immediate flash of acute deja vu. This was exactly what had happened just after the Master had enacted his temporal displacement. Any minute now, Martha would be telling the Doctor she had been summoned back to London.

Sure enough, the first thing she said was: "Doctor, I've had a phone call. UNIT need me in London pronto. I have to leave right away!"

"Martha!" Tejana exclaimed, delighted to see her friend, unaware that her 2008 self had done all this before. "Oh Martha, I'm so glad you're all right!"

The other woman glanced up at her coolly. "Still here, are you? I thought you might have left with lover-boy by now," she said caustically, indicating the Master with a nod of her head. "So what's going on?"

Clearly, neither Martha or Amy had any memory of the events which had been erased from the restored causal nexus. _Just as well_, Jack thought grimly.

"We were just leaving," the Master replied curtly, extending his palm to the Doctor. "Once the Doctor returns the temporal limiter he...borrowed...from our TARDIS."

"Doctor, you can't!" Jack protested angrily.

The Doctor hesitated briefly, but then – to Jack's complete horror – he put his hand into his pocket and withdrew a small, complex-looking component. The Master smiled again, the triumph plain in his expression as he stepped forward to take it. For just a moment, the Doctor held it out of his reach, eyeing his old enemy's face warily.

"You'd better look after her," he said warningly. "And for Gallifrey's sake, try not to go enslaving or blowing up too many planets."

The Master put his head on one side. "So how many is too many, exactly?"

Then, as the Doctor glared at him, he put his hands up in a gesture of mock surrender. "I'm joking!"

"You need to work on your sense of humour!" the Doctor grumbled, handing over the missing TARDIS component with ill-grace.

"At least I've got one," the Master retorted, retreating to a safe distance with his prize.

Tejana stepped forward and kissed her father, her smile radiant with relief and gratitude. "Thank you, Doctor."

The Doctor took her by the shoulders and looked into her eyes. "Just be happy, Tejana...and be careful."

Her gaze wandered to the Master, who was standing nearby and tinkering with the temporal limiter.

"Don't worry, I intend to be both!" she replied dryly. "Goodbye."

Quickly, she gave both Martha and Amy a warm hug each. Then she turned to Jack and kissed him hesitantly on the cheek.

"Don't do this, Tejana," he said urgently, tears in his eyes. "Please. Just don't."

"Goodbye, Jack," she whispered. "Take care of yourself."

With that, she turned and walked away, leaving him behind. The Master was standing in the doorway of his TARDIS now, waiting for her. As Jack watched, the other man extended his hand to her, as if in invitation, just as he had back on the ship of the Eternals. Without hesitation, and without a single backward glance, she took it and they disappeared into his TARDIS together. Then there came the familiar wheezing, groaning sound of the engines and the time-machine faded in and out before vanishing altogether.

Furiously, Jack turned to the Doctor, needing to vent his pain. "So that's it then? You're just letting them go again? Why did you do that? WHY?"

The Doctor paused, his eyes burning brightly, full of some emotion Jack did not understand. "Sometimes, Jack, the biggest lessons in life we have to learn again and again."

But Jack wasn't in the mood for the Doctor's deep, cryptic comments. "What's that supposed to mean?" he snarled.

"It means that I was just like him, after the Time War," the Doctor replied evenly. "Full of blood...and anger...and revenge...but then I met Rose. And she healed me, she made me better – she helped me get past all that pain, all that hatred. She helped me find a new beginning."

"So what are you saying? That Tejana is the Master's Rose?"

The Doctor smiled. "The Master's Rose," he echoed thoughtfully. "Yeah, maybe she could be, at that – not that I'm sure she'd thank you for saying so. But there's one thing I've learnt in my travels, Jack, and that is to be capable of love, nine times out of ten...someone needs to love us first. And with Tejana to love him, who knows what the Master could become?"

Jack looked at him in angry disbelief. "You don't seriously think he's _changed_?"

"Oh, come on now, Jack, I didn't say _that_!" the Doctor grinned, his introspective mood disappearing, his body suddenly full of restless life and energy again. "Let's just say I think he's taken the first few steps on a very, very long road!"

Then, turning to Amy, he said cheerfully, "Come on then, Pond. Chop, chop, time to go!"

Amy said a quick, rueful goodbye to Martha and Jack, before following the impatient-to-leave Doctor into his TARDIS.

"So, Doctor," they heard her say as the doors closed. "Tell me all about this Rose person."

Again, the sound of TARDIS engines echoed throughout the Hub and the second police box vanished as though it had never been there, leaving Jack and Martha staring at an empty space.

* * *

**- The Master's TARDIS, Somewhere in Time and Space - **

Once inside the TARDIS doors, the Master pulled Tejana close to him and gave her another passionate, possessive kiss, before releasing her and bounding up the stairs to the glass platform, where he immediately began to reinstall the temporal limiter into the empty slot in the console. He was clearly in a hurry to leave, in case the Doctor changed his mind again.

Tejana remained on the lower level, near the main doors, already knowing that she needed to stay as far away from the console as possible. Tears came to her eyes as she looked around at the stunning cathedral-like interior of the TARDIS, an interior the Master had designed just for her. _Home_. Their home, together. A deep sense of peace stole into her tired soul. It was so lovely. And she was so glad she had been able to see it one last time.

The Master was talking now, but she couldn't really make out what he was saying. His voice sounded muffled, far away and distant, as though there was a pane of glass between them. Instead, all she could hear was the Song of the Universe, rising and falling in glorious, complex harmony, calling to her, a gentle summons that could not be ignored.

They had won. They had defeated Legion. They had restored the causal nexus. But nothing was ever for free. Because that was how the Universe worked. It was an intricate system of checks and balances, of give and take, always maintaining a mysterious equilibrium that was beyond the understanding of even a Time Lord, a perfect and magnificent balance. There was still a price yet to be paid. She had known it almost as soon as she had opened her eyes and realised they were back in the Hub. Everything she looked at seemed to glitter, sparkling as though scattered with diamond dust, every gleaming atom distinct to her suddenly too-acute vision. The spectacular rhythm of Creation pulsed in the air around her, life and energy and humming in an ineffable symphony of joy. She could sense it and yet she knew she was no longer part of it.

Standing in the TARDIS, she stared down at her hands, seeing the tell-tale golden glow already beginning to emanate from her skin. She gave a small, wistful smile. She wasn't sorry, not really. Oh, it was difficult, so impossibly difficult, to leave all this behind. But she was tired, weary to the very bone. Everything had its time and now it was her time to rest.

Glancing up at the console platform, she saw the Master slam down the de-materialisation lever and the time rotor begin to oscillate smoothly. With a triumphant grin, he turned around to look for her. Like everything else, he seemed to shimmer with a glittering aura. He was so achingly beautiful. Tejana gazed hungrily at his face, drinking it in, wanting to take as much of him with her as she could.

"Koschei," she said huskily.

The smile dropped away from his lips as he met her eyes and instantly knew.

"Ana," he said in a bleak voice. "No."

"It's OK," she told him, feeling the aurulent power unfurling inside her, surging and burning through her veins, struggling to escape. "Really, it is. It's been a good regeneration but...it's time."

Everything was becoming a little unreal now, the Master slipping away from her into a golden haze, as every cell in her body started to transform.

"Time to come all the way out of the dark," she murmured. "Time for a brand new day."

And then the rising wave of artron energy engulfed her and swept her away. Her body stiffened and she threw her head back in a primal scream of agony as the seething power exploded from her body in a violent concussion and she began to change.


	32. Chapter 32

**_Author's Note:_**

**_G'Day everyone. As always, big thanks to those who reviewed the last chapter: MayFairy, GallifreanGirl, yulicee, Aietradaea, OhTex, BeckyBoo12221, broadwayb, iLuvTwiBoyz, Omniac, tardisandafirebolt, Riverbleu, Ceville, Lost Moon, babybluepineapple (wow, WHAT a review), Geraldine and Lovin' It._**

**_Big wave to my new reviewer, Lovin' It: So glad you liked it. And, wow, I didn't realise I was even on the TV Trope Fanfic Rec page - how cool is that? Now I feel famous, LOL. Did you recommend me? If so, thank you very much! XXX_**

**_As for the huge amount of people who continuously read without reviewing, particularly those who have recently favourited or alerted without reviewing, I'm very near the end of this story now, so some feedback would be nice, especially if you would like to see some more of my stories on this site. I mean, I assume you like what I have written, but it's a bit hard to know for sure if you don't tell me. It mightn't mean much t o you, but it's very frustrating for me, especially when I put in so much time on my writing._**

**_Anyway, as far as this chapter goes, I know I said it was going to be my last, but I lied...my bad! Actually, the chapter was going to end up being much too long if I didn't divide it, so I made it into two shorter chapters instead._**

**_So, to all the kind people who reviewed last time, I apologise if this chapter seems a little short. To everyone else...TOUGH ;0)!  
_**

* * *

**CHAPTER THIRTY TWO**

**- The Master's TARDIS, Somewhere in Time and Space -**

Standing well back, the Master was forced to raise his arm to shield his eyes from the brilliant explosion of artron energy. At last, the blinding light faded and he was able to see her again. The person who gazed back at him looked nothing like the Tejana he had known. The long, curly black hair had melted into a mass of even longer, thick, dark-coppery locks that fell straight down her back, without a curl in sight. The slender body had shortened, forming itself into a more fragile figure altogether, her clothes now much too large for her. The patrician features had dissolved into a delicately-boned oval face, with lightly-tanned skin stretched over high cheek-bones and dominated by a pair of clear, sea-green eyes. Her nose was highly unclassical and tip-tilted, while her mouth was decidedly mischievous and made for smiles, above a small but determined chin.

Stretching like a cat, she aimed an impish grin at him. "So...how did I do?"

Her new voice was lower pitched than before, sweet and smooth, like molten honey.

Slowly, almost reluctantly, he came down the stairs towards her, still stunned at the sudden transformation. Regeneration was a natural part of the life-cycle of a Time Lord. Having undergone so many changes of his own, the Master understood that even better than most. But he had just come so close to losing Tejana forever to Death, that to effectively lose her again, without warning, to regeneration...it felt like a vicious kick in the stomach. His brain seemed to have frozen. He was unsure what he should be feeling, unsure what he should say.

"Great," he said dazedly. "You did...great."

"Oh, come on, Koschei...say it like you mean it," she said wryly, spinning in an experimental circle. "Looks like I've still got all my bits and pieces, though. Two arms, two legs, one head, that's a good start." Putting her hands up to her head, she ran her fingers through her hair, grabbing a handful and inspecting it curiously. "Long hair, again...I always get long hair, wonder why that is? Ooh, and look, I'm nearly ginger. Closer than the Doctor's ever got, anyway – he _will_ be jealous!"

The Master stared wordlessly at her hair, trying to take in the fact that it wasn't black any more. He would never have described her new colour as ginger. In actual fact, the dark copper colour reminded him of the beautiful autumn sunsets he had seen on Gallifrey as a child.

Still caught up in her appraisal of her new body, Tejana didn't appear to notice his numbed silence. Looking down at herself and noting her too-loose clothing, she flapped her arms and made a sound of annoyance. "And I'm even smaller than before. That is _so_ unfair. My first couple of regenerations were quite tall, but if I keep declining at this rate, I'm going to end up a midget the next time around!"

Then, for no apparent reason, she laughed out loud and, with a movement so abrupt she startled him, threw her hands to the ground and executed a series of dramatic cartwheels. "Oh, Koschei, it's been so long, I'd forgotten how_ good _regeneration feels!" she exclaimed exultantly. "All the _life _charging through me, like a tidal wave! I feel like I could run for miles without stopping, climb the tallest mountains, swim the deepest oceans, and all before breakfast!"

Despite himself, the Master couldn't help the small grin that tugged at the corner of his mouth as he watched her diminutive figure bouncing around like a lunatic. His initial shock was beginning to wear off a little now, his dismay easing as the reality of the change started to sink in.

"Take it easy, Ana," he warned, remembering only too well the overwhelming surge of potency that came with a new form, the heady sense of power and invincibility. "It's going to take a while for the regeneration to fully complete. You have to allow it to settle."

As he spoke, he looked her up and down anxiously. The first fifteen hours after a Time Lord regenerated were always unpredictable. The excess artron energy left over from the transformation could often cause confusion, disorientation, erratic behaviour, memory loss and, occasionally, even more severe complications. He was going to have to keep a close eye on her for a while, to make sure nothing had gone wrong.

"I'm fine!" she retorted gaily. "Couldn't be better! See...watch this!"

With that, she performed a perfect hand-stand, holding her body completely vertical. Then, unashamedly showing off, she began to walk around him on her hands like a circus acrobat.

"There!" she said in satisfaction. "Bet you couldn't do that on your best day!"

But before he could reply, she cried out in sudden pain, falling heavily to the floor and clutching at her stomach.

The Master felt a cold stab of fear as he leapt across to crouch next to her. "Ana!"

To his relief, she struggled to sit up, groggily pushing the tousled hair back from her face as he steadied her.

"I'm OK," she told him breathlessly. "Whew, I'd forgotten about those after-shocks. Nasty!"

"Is this the bit where I get to say 'I told you so'?" he asked dryly, sitting on the floor beside her, pulling her close to him, his arm securely supporting her.

She gave a shaky laugh. "Not unless you want me to slap you again."

"Yeah, good luck with that," he snorted in amusement.

For a moment, she didn't reply, her clear green eyes searching his face uncertainly. Then she said in a small voice, "You hate it, don't you?"

He didn't pretend to misunderstand what she meant. "No," he answered, suddenly realising it was true. In the last few minutes, caught up in his concern for her, the change in her appearance had meant nothing. She was still his Ana. She was not lost, not gone forever. Everything she had been before was still here with him, concealed somewhere inside this new, feisty little bundle of energy. And he had an intriguing suspicion that finding her again was going to be a very interesting challenge, to say the least. "No, I don't hate it at all."

Putting his hand on her right leg, he slid it all the way down to her ankle, seizing the loose denim of her jeans and pulling the fabric up to reveal the skin beneath. A burst of possessive pride seared through him. The mark of his hand was still there, cauterised into the flesh of her new body like a brand, the perpetual symbol of his ownership.

"You see?" he said, curling his hand into the scar, where it fitted perfectly. "You can regenerate as many times as you like, it doesn't change anything. You'll still belong to me. Always."

Bending his head, his mouth brushed and then covered hers, forcefully parting her lips and claiming her mouth, intently and completely. It was a strange sensation – feeling the unfamiliar contours of her body against him, different and yet the same, Ana and yet not Ana. Right now, in this moment, she was utterly and exclusively his. She had a brand new body. No-one else had ever seen her face, no-one else had heard her voice, no-one else had ever touched her smooth, soft skin. _No-one but him_. The sheer possessiveness of the thought excited him. His arms closed tightly, almost cruelly, around her. She was so small, so fragile in this new incarnation...he could break her in half with one hand, if he wanted to. He could feel the old, familiar urge to dominate rising inside him. He kissed her harder, taking everything he could from her, wanting...no, _needing_...her submission.

However, to his surprise, instead of softening under his touch, she pulled sharply away from him. Anger scorched through him at the implicit rejection, mingled with sudden alarm, as he watched her jump to her feet and walk away without a word.

_What if things had changed more than he realised? What if, in this regeneration, she no longer wanted him? What if he really had lost her after all?_

"Ana!" he said, his voice catching harshly in his throat.

Reaching the stairs to the console platform, she turned and looked casually back over her shoulder at him, her eyebrows raised. "Well, come on then."

He stood up, frowning in bewilderment. "Come on where?"

The green eyes scanned him brazenly up and down, suddenly hot and sultry with invitation. "The bedroom, of course," she answered, two perfectly matched dimples appearing mischievously in her cheeks. "I want to take this body for a _proper_ test run. And, besides, even Time Lord babies don't make themselves, you know."

For a moment, the Master stood still, his narrowed gaze taking in the willful gleam in her eyes as she took the initiative, the subtle assertiveness in the tilt of her chin . It seemed that in the future he might not be getting everything his own way quite so easily. A slow smile of pleasure spread across his face.

_So...an interesting challenge indeed!_

Then, he was hurrying to follow her up the stairs, his body already taut with anticipation. He might not be running the Universe this time around, but there were definitely some compensations. He had a feeling he was going to enjoy Tejana's new regeneration.

_Very, very much._

* * *

**- _The Hub, _March 2013 - **

In the dark, empty Hub, all was silence.

Jack stood in his office, looking down over the main work area. Martha had left a long time ago, hurrying back to her busy, responsible position with UNIT in London, leaving Jack alone.

"Will you be all right?" she had asked him, just before she left. And, of course, he had said he was fine. The thing was, though, he wasn't sure it was true any more.

This wasn't the first time he had been alone in the Hub. It was common enough, back in the old days, when he had lived and slept as well as worked here. At the end of a long day, everyone else would pack up and depart, going home to their lives outside of Torchwood. But Jack had never had a life outside. Torchwood had been his all, everything he had, for more years than he chose to remember. Nevertheless, he had never really minded those dark hours of solitude, because he had always known that in the morning, the big cog door would roll open and the people he loved would return, ready for another day of action, possible danger, hidden agendas, constant bickering and genuine laughter.

_Owen. Tosh. Gwen. Ianto. Tejana._ All of them gone, except Gwen, and he had his doubts over how long she would stay, now that she was a mother.

With a deep sigh, he turned his back on the glass wall and went to sit in his chair, automatically putting his feet up on his desk. For a few brief moments, he just sat motionless, staring at nothing, his thoughts far away. Then he reached into his desk drawer and drew out a small, golden sphere. Running his fingers across the engraved surface, he found the hidden catch and pressed it, just as Tejana had shown him, once upon a dream. Yet again, the delicate music box hovered and unfurled in the darkness, releasing the unearthly display of light and colour, the eerie, haunting Song of the Universe reverberating magically through the air. And, with a hollow ache in his heart, Jack listened, remembering how beautiful it had been between them, lying together on that scruffy old couch, hidden in a tiny, enchanted pocket of Time that had never really existed.

Jack and Tejana, the Temporal Nucleus and the Time Lady, a combination that could have made the entire Universe tremble, but now never would.

All at once, the heavenly music seemed to mock him, his own mind tormenting him as he imagined her, far away across time and space, intimately held in the Master's arms. Involuntary anger and pain arced through him, the cold, white fire in his veins tempting him, calling to him, whispering to him of blood and hatred and revenge. Furiously, he lashed out with his hand, striking at the shining sphere and knocking it to the ground. With a small, sad hiccup, the glorious music ceased, the gleaming segments of the toy retracting defensively into a smooth, unbroken whole once more. Jack bent down and picked it up, his eyes glowing with the pure destruction of Time-fire. For a few uncontrollable seconds, he was tempted to crush the golden ball in his fist, to use the white fire to obliterate it from Time forever. But in the end, he could not bring himself to do it. Instead, he raised it to his lips and kissed it, as if in apology. Then he placed it in the inside pocket of his great-coat, close to his heart.

With one last look around, he picked up the old, worn ruck-sack that was sitting on the desk and slung it over his shoulder, before moving to the door. Slowly, his feet as heavy as lead, he descended the stairs into the main work area. Pulling a crumpled envelope out of his pocket, he placed it prominently on Gwen's desk, where she would see it as soon as she arrived in the morning.

A lump formed in his throat as he walked across to the cog door. Turning, he looked back at the place that had been his life for so long. His eyes played over the gently-glowing Rift Manipulator, the vacant, silent work-stations, the empty spot where two TARDISes had stood side by side for such a short while. Suddenly, the darkness seemed to fade and the silence was filled with cheerful noise and clatter. The note had disappeared from Gwen's desk and instead, she was sitting in her chair, watching some grainy black-and-white CCTV footage, expertly using the graphics program on her computer to zoom in and enlarge portions of the film. "Hello, Jack," she greeted him crisply, glancing over her shoulder at him. "I need you to have a look at this, when you have a minute!"

Jack blinked incredulously, knowing that what he was seeing was impossible. And it wasn't just Gwen. To his left, he saw Tosh sitting at her computer, staring intently at the terminal through her black-rimmed glasses, a complex molecular analysis displayed on the screen.

"I'll have those reports on your desk before lunch-time, Jack," she called.

Behind him, through the open door to the Autopsy Room, he heard an outbreak of frenzied swearing. Whirling, he looked down and saw a white-coated Owen standing there, his gloved hands in the air, a partially-dissected alien on the table before him. A viscous green substance was spouting out of the creature's chest, coating everything nearby, including Owen, with sticky, foul-smelling goop.

"Aw, Harkness, that's bloody disgusting!" Owen exclaimed bitterly, swiping some of the mucous off his face. "You could have warned me!"

Jack couldn't help laughing. But before he could say anything, someone murmured in his ear, "Coffee, Sir?"

The smell of industrial-strength coffee hung in the air, making Jack feel dizzy, breaking his heart. Because there he was. Ianto Jones, his beloved Ianto, neat and dapper in his immaculate suit, winding his way between the desks, depositing the mugs and morning biscuits on each one. Jack's eyes clung hungrily to him, tears welling in his eyes and trickling down his cheeks.

And then Ianto delivered the last cup of coffee to the last desk, and a slender figure with a long, black braid looked up to thank him. The midnight blue gaze slid over Ianto's shoulder, fixing on Jack, a beautiful, warm smile of welcome lighting her face. "Jack!"

"Tejana," he whispered.

Overhead, he heard the beating of leathery wings and a harsh, primordial shriek as Myfanwy the pterodactyl swooped and flew, circling the tall, glowing column of the Rift Manipulator. Without thinking, Jack made the mistake of glancing up, trying in vain to see the ancient creature. When he looked back down, the Hub was empty again, cloaked in darkness once more, echoing and lonely.

Jack swallowed painfully, swiping angrily at the tears of loss on his face, unsure whether the scene he had just witnessed had been in his imagination or whether he had unconsciously manipulated the Web of Time to say one last goodbye.

It was time for him to go wandering again, just as he had after the 456 incident. Only this time there would be no Tejana to bring him back. There were no more new beginnings for him here, just a collection of heart-wrenching ghosts. Resolutely turning his back, he walked out the cog door into an unknown future, allowing it to roll shut behind him.

And in his wake, a tiny cloud of entropy dust sifted across the floor, Time already beginning the process of claiming the Hub for its own.


	33. Chapter 33

**_Author's Note:_**

**_Hi everyone, for the last time in this story. The journey is finally over and my 'Ship of Dreams' has docked again. As always, the rest is another story and shall be told another time._**

**_Big thanks to everyone who reviewed the previous chapter:- tree1138, Riverbleu, iLuvTwiBoyz, tardisandafirebolt, babybluepineapple, MayFairy, broadwayb, xxTeam-Masterxx, GallifreanGirl, Ceville, OhTex, crazychika495, Lovin' It, Lost Moon, Aietradaea, Catelly and Omniac. Thanks also to everyone who has reviewed all previous chapters as well, I appreciate it very much._**

**_This chapter is pretty much an epilogue, albeit a very long one, LOL. I've already described what happened in 2013 once the temporal displacement was reversed. But how did it affect everyone back in 2008? Read on to find out...  
_**

**_Hopefully you will enjoy this last instalment!  
_**

* * *

**CHAPTER THIRTY THREE**

**- The Northern Plains of India, December 2008 -**

Martha Jones huddled in her jacket, walking determinedly through the falling snow, a single tiny lantern lighting her way as she stumbled alone through the icy night. The travelling conditions were far from ideal, but moving between the settlements and villages of the Plains at night was the safest way to avoid the Toclafane. Her fingers clutched at the tiny perception filter strung around her neck, deriving a strange comfort from the familiar contours of the TARDIS key, imagining she could still feel the warmth of the Doctor's touch on it.

As always, her mind turned to _The Valiant_, sailing somewhere above her across the skies of planet Earth, hovering ominously like a giant bird of prey. A heaviness sat in her stomach like a stone as she wondered what horrors the Master was inflicting on her family in her absence, not to mention the Doctor, Tejana and Jack. She knew the job she was doing was vital to the Doctor's plan, spreading his story to all the people she met, all across the world. But sometimes she couldn't help feeling that she had deserted her family and friends when they needed her most.

For some reason, she kept thinking of William Shakespeare. She could remember so clearly the wild, amazing thrill of meeting the great playwright, the way her pulse had pounded in exhilarated anticipation as she had lain next to the Doctor in the narrow bed that night, expecting something exciting and beautiful and amazing to unfold between them. Until he had told her about Rose.

_Rose. Rose. Rose. Always Rose_, she thought bitterly now, staggering through the freezing night on her lonely mission. _Only, it isn't wonderful, brilliant, blonde Rose down here doing her best to save the world for you, is it, Doctor? It's me, the eternally second-best Martha Jones._

And yet, tonight everything seemed different. She wasn't sure what had happened, but with every step she took, a strange new determination filled her. She _wasn't_ second best. She never had been and she never would be. Even though she couldn't exactly remember the details, it was as though she had fought a great, mysterious battle within her subconscious and had emerged victorious. She had lost her fear and self-doubt somewhere along the line and now she knew she would never be afraid again. _She was Martha Jones and she was damn good!_

Holding the lantern high, she pressed on relentlessly. The Resistance had heard rumours that the Torchwood team were possibly operating in this general area. Martha wondered if, by some miracle, she would be able to find them. The very idea filled her with hope.

_Because, of all the people in the world, who would the fugitive Martha Jones be able to trust more than Jack's beloved team? _

* * *

**- Foothills of the Himalayas, Siwalik Hills, India, December 2008 -**

The night was perfectly clear, totally still and absolutely freezing. Snow lay in a thick, white blanket across the ground. Shivering, Doctor Owen Harper hunkered down next to an unimpressive fire in the mouth of a small cave, a rough, khaki-coloured blanket wrapped closely around him, trying vainly to keep warm. Overhead, billions of stars glittered, shining through the darkness in a heavenly tapestry of light. Rubbing his gloved hands together, Owen stared up at them, entranced by the celestial display. He had never really paid much attention to the stars before, when he had been living and working in Cardiff. Too busy with other things, he supposed. Working for Torchwood. Boozing. Chasing women. Sleeping. All the things that had once made up his life and yet which now seemed so insignificant. Out here, trapped in the middle of nowhere, all the comforts of civilization long gone, he could see the stars with such aching clarity that they almost seemed to sing to him.

Suddenly, he heard a soft, scuffling noise behind him. Immediately alert, he whirled around, his gun held ready. To his relief, he realised it was only Tosh, moving quietly out of the depths of the cave to join him.

"Anything happening?" she asked in a low voice, careful not to wake Gwen and Ianto, who were still curled in their blankets, fast asleep.

"Nope. Even the Toclafane wouldn't be mad enough to come out in weather like this," Owen replied grumpily. "You should be sleeping. You aren't due to take the watch for another hour."

"I couldn't sleep," she said, settling in beside him, as close to the fire as she could. "I had the weirdest dream."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. I was in this awful place – all mud and fire, just like Hell really. Gwen was there too, as well as a bunch of other women. This girl with long black hair was leading us on some sort of journey," Tosh told him, her forehead wrinkled as she struggled to remember. "Along a yellow brick road, of all things."

Owen stiffened, a strange feeling of confusion washing over him. "A girl with long, black hair?"

"Yes. Why, does that mean something to you?" Tosh asked curiously.

Somehow Owen had an idea that it should, but he couldn't quite pin-point why. "Nah, why should it?" he answered with an uneasy shrug, trying to dismiss the odd feeling. "You're probably just nervous about tomorrow. We're trying to sabotage one of the biggest of the Master's fusion mills in this part of the world, with no intelligence, no weapons to speak of and no back-up – why the hell wouldn't you be nervous?"

Tosh gave him a small, weary smile. "That's what we do," she replied. "We're still Torchwood, after all."

"Are we?" Owen shot back bitterly, poking moodily at the fire with a stick, sending a shower of sparks shooting into the air.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Tosh queried, looking at him in concern. "Of course we are."

"Oh, come on, Tosh. Gwen does her best," he said harshly. "But...well, let's be honest...she isn't Jack, is she?"

Tosh sighed, torn between her loyalty to Gwen and saying what she really thought. "No," she answered eventually, her voice barely audible. "She isn't Jack."

"Selfish, lousy son-of-a-bitch!" Owen snarled, snapping the stick in two, as his simmering hurt and anger at their former leader's desertion boiled over for the umpteenth time. "I wonder where he ended up in all of this? Sitting pretty somewhere, I bet, jammy bastard."

"No way. Something must have happened to him, Owen," Tosh said soothingly. "I don't believe he would have just left us in the lurch without a word otherwise."

"Maybe it did and maybe it didn't," he retorted, pulling the meagre blanket over his head as a gust of icy wind blew into the cave with a mournful howl. "But I just hope that, wherever he is, he's at least as uncomfortable as we are!"

* * *

**- The Engine Room, _The Valiant_, December 2008 - **

A deluge of ice-cold water woke Jack from his uneasy slumber. Spluttering and gasping, shivering violently in the cool, early morning air, he forced opened his eyes. Facing him, empty bucket in hand, was one of his guards, a weasel-faced man by the name of Rod, a sadistic grin stretching his mouth.

"Rise and shine, Cap'n," the man said insolently. "It's another beautiful day – I'm sure you wouldn't want to miss any of it!"

"Yeah, good morning to you too," Jack muttered sarcastically, trying to blink some of the water out of his eyes.

His head was killing him. He'd just had the strangest dream, all about zombies, a whole crowd of them advancing on him - pitch black eyes, shambling walk, distorted faces, the full works, straight out of a horror movie - talk about a nightmare! Not that waking up was much of an improvement. He was still standing spread-eagled in the middle of the engine room of _The Valiant_, his arms stretched out above his head and chained to either side, the heavy metal shackles cutting painfully into his thin wrists. Pushing up on his toes, he tried to relieve some of the pressure on his cramped muscles, without much success.

Rod laughed at his obvious discomfort, before producing another bucketful of water.

"Oh, don't worry, Freak," he sneered. "This one's not for you. The Master wants this place spick and span before he comes down here again. Very particular, is the Master. Doesn't like a mess."

With that, the guard sloshed the bucket of water across the floor, washing away the sticky, red pool of half-dried blood that lay at Jack's feet, diluting it into anaemic pink rivulets that flowed swiftly away, swirling and gurgling down the nearby drain. Jack watched it run, shuddering as he remembered the sharp knives from the night before, carving intricate, arcane patterns into his skin; slicing bone-deep into his flesh; the excruciating pain screaming through his body; the red, red blood dripping steadily to the floor. And, through it all, the Master's fiendish, white smile, the perverse pleasure in the evil Time Lord's restless brown eyes as he lapped up Jack's agony, savouring every appalling moment.

"Ah well, let's look on the bright side," Rod sniggered. "Apparently, he's going to use hot irons instead of knives tonight. Much less mess for me to clean up!"

Jack closed his eyes without bothering to answer, refusing to allow his mind to dwell on the horrors in store for him. He couldn't allow the Master to break him. There were only six more months to endure until the scheduled launch day. He had to stay strong for the Doctor's plan to succeed.

_That's assuming Martha's still alive_, a small, unwelcome voice said in the back of his head.

During one of his recent torture sessions, the Master had told Jack that Martha was dead, gleefully detailing her horrible end in the flaming holocaust he had visited on the Islands of Japan one month ago. But Jack stubbornly refused to believe it. Because, without Martha, the Doctor's plan would fail and the Earth was doomed.

And yet, as he thought about it - even as he hung from his chains, his arms aching unbearably - Jack smiled, his blue eyes as cold as an arctic winter. The Master didn't know it, but he had already lost. Even if Martha was dead. Even if he killed the Doctor and Tejana and everyone else on the Earth. Because, no matter what he did, there was one thing he couldn't change. And that was Jack himself. He was immortal, unchangeable, immutable, permanent. _A fixed point in Time_. The Master could kill him as many times and in as many ways as he liked, but Jack would just keep on coming back. He could wait forever if he had to. But in the end, his opportunity would come. He knew it with absolute certainty, just as surely as if it had been written across the stars, his unequivocal destiny engraved on his heart for all eternity.

In the end, even if it took a thousand years, Jack was going to be the one that killed the Master.

It was only a matter of time.

* * *

**- The Doctor's Cell, _The Valiant_, December 2008 - **

The Doctor sat up with a start, both his hearts racing. He was lying in his bunk in the familiar cell he had occupied for six months, ever since the Master had captured him. Trembling, he ran his fingers over the top of his head, feeling the bald patch, surrounded by the thin, sparse strands of hair. Bringing his hands back down, he ran his eyes over the ancient, wrinkled skin that covered his bones. He was still old. Nothing had changed. Although, he wasn't quite sure why he thought that it might have. He must have been dreaming. He hadn't meant to fall asleep. The last thing he remembered clearly was focusing on the Archangel Network, concentrating his entire mind on integrating with the matrices of the telepathic field. But exhaustion must have overtaken him, luring him into sleep.

Strange, disjointed images danced through his mind, like glittering shards of a shattered window pane, none of them making sense:- twelve nuns, dressed in rough black habits; the swirling distortion of a time eddy; the brilliant glare of the Master's laser screw-driver; Lucy Saxon walking towards him across a polished, wooden floor; the Master crying, his face twisted in genuine anguish; a digital clock slowly and inexorably ticking over to twelve midnight; and, worst of all, Tejana lying dead on the ground in front of him, dressed in a ragged blue gown, her dark hair spread out in a cloud around her.

Deeply alarmed, but unable to say why, he immediately used the psychic link to feel for his daughter's consciousness. As always, her defensive shields were at maximum, to keep the Master from infiltrating her mind. Nevertheless, he could still sense enough to determine that she was unharmed.

With a sigh of relief, he lay back on his bunk, feeling his joints creak painfully.

_Just a dream then_, he told himself. _Nothing but a stupid dream._

* * *

_**- **_**Tejana's Cell**_**, The Valiant, **_**December 2008 **_**-**_

When Tejana opened her eyes, she felt incredibly, unbelievably happy. A sense of well-being filled her from head to toe, the sheer joy of living surging through her. She couldn't explain it, but for the first time since she had been taken prisoner on board _The Valiant_, she felt that everything was going to be all right. Somehow, it was all going to work out.

Light-heartedly, she sat up, taking in her surroundings in the dim light. For once, the sight of the dank, claustrophobic little cell didn't oppress her. Instead, it seemed almost comforting, as if she had somehow come home from a long journey.

She took a deep breath and stretched her manacled hands above her head in luxurious pleasure. A small bubble of laughter rose in her throat. _Stars, she felt good!_ It was as if, deep inside, she knew she had something wonderful to look forward to, but she couldn't remember what it was.

Bemused, trying to work out what had changed, she thought back to the night before. She had dreamed, hadn't she? But not her usual terrifying nightmares of Gallifrey or the Time War. This dream had been beautiful, magical...she had been inside a TARDIS. But it hadn't been her father's TARDIS. The console room had been heart-breakingly lovely, like something out of a fairy-tale. She could still see the lustrous mother-of-pearl walls, the glowing crystal support columns, the delicate glass time-rotor column, the rainbow of iridescent, prismatic light refracting gently throughout the room...just thinking about it made her want to smile. She had no idea why this particular dream meant so much to her, but somehow it lit her up from the inside, warming her with a promise of good things to come.

Just then, the door slid back and her guard walked into the room. He was a tall, tough-looking man with short, greying hair. His ice-blue eyes were always hard and alert and he very rarely spoke. As always, he nodded curtly to her and placed a bowl of sloppy-looking porridge on the locker beside her bed. Producing the key to her manacles, he unlocked them, allowing them to fall away on to the bed. Tejana sighed in relief, massaging her aching wrists. Six months of being constantly shackled were taking their toll – her delicate skin was becoming painfully rough and abraded. Nonetheless, she had always taken it as a personal compliment that the Master considered it necessary to fully restrain her, even when she was locked in her cell for the night. It meant that he was aware that she would gladly kill him without hesitation at the first opportunity, whether the Doctor approved or not. The thought pleased her. She _wanted_ the Master to know just how much she hated him.

Having released her hands to enable her to eat, her guard turned back towards the door.

"Wait," she said, surprising herself. Then, as he turned back, she found herself asking, "What's your name?"

In six months, she had never asked him before. Normally, wrapped up in her own problems, she never spoke to him at all. But today, it suddenly seemed oddly important.

He paused for a moment but then replied in a deep voice, "Peter, ma'am. Peter Evans."

Tejana stared at him, as if seeing him for the first time. Behind his tough facade, she could sense a deep, crushing sadness. A devastating loss. She wondered why she had never noticed it before. Having lost so much herself, she couldn't help feeling a kinship with this enigmatic, silent man.

"Thank you, Peter," she said softly, giving him a smile.

Again, he hesitated. But then an answering smile tugged minutely at the corners of his mouth, as though he had forgotten how to do it properly. "Ma'am," he nodded, before retreating out the door, allowing it to slide shut behind him.

Ignoring the revolting porridge, Tejana reached for her brush, one of the few personal items she had been allowed to retain during her imprisonment. Methodically, she dragged it through her long, dark hair until it was tangle free. Then, automatically, she began to twist it back into its customary intricate plait in preparation for the day ahead. But suddenly, her hands stilled. A curious impulse seized her. _Just for once, what would it be like to leave her hair loose? _She wasn't sure where the thought had come from. She always kept her hair severely confined, to make sure it stayed out of her way. With the amount of running usually involved in travelling with the Doctor, it wasn't practical to have it flying around everywhere. But tightly-wound hair didn't seem in keeping with her new carefree mood today.

So instead, she left it loose, allowing the long curls to flow down over her shoulders.

* * *

**- Lucy Saxon's Suite, _The Valiant_, December 2008 - **

Lucy Saxon sat at her ornate dressing-table in her sumptuous State Suite, slowly pulling a silver-backed brush through her beautiful golden hair. She longed to be able to put it up, to relieve her shoulders from its weight, to feel cool air on the nape of her neck for once. But she didn't dare. Harry liked it down, so down it must stay.

She stared sadly at her reflection in the mirror, eyeing the fading yellow bruise on her face, the painful legacy of the last occasion her husband had not been pleased. She swallowed hard. Today, everything would be perfect. Her hair. Her make-up. The new, sexy red dress. He would have no reason to be angry, she would make sure of it.

A lone tear slid down her cheek. This was supposed to be her fairy-tale. She had married her Prince. She had helped him conquer the world. He had promised to make her the Queen of the Universe. But somehow things had gone wrong, spiralling out of her control. Her Prince Charming had turned into a monster and she didn't know what to do.

And for some reason, things seemed worse today than usual. She kept seeing dark things creeping at the edges of her vision. It was as if Death sat at her elbow, watching over her, waiting for her... She shuddered. Somehow, she could visualise Death so clearly, sitting on his great white throne, huge and faceless and cloaked in black, his enormous scythe curving overhead, preparing to rend and slice what was left of her pathetic life into shreds.

A voice kept whispering in her ear, a voice she knew she should recognise, saying the same thing over and over again.

_"I'm sorry, Lucy, so very sorry about what is to come."_

She had no idea what it meant, but the words sent a shiver up her spine. A premonition seemed to hang over her, cold and ominous, filling her soul with dread.

Angrily, she dashed away the capricious tear and began to brush her hair even harder, closing her ears to the voice, refusing to listen. She had nothing to fear. She was still Harry's wife. She was his partner, his confidante, his faithful companion. Together, they ruled the Earth. In six months time, when his rockets flew, they would rule the Universe. It was Harry's prisoners who needed to fear – the Doctor, his daughter, Captain Harkness, the Jones family – they should all be very, very afraid.

Reaching out her hand, she grabbed a pair of ear-rings off the dressing-table and deliberately dropped them on the floor.

_I am going to be Queen of the Universe, just as Harry promised_, she reassured herself, as she pressed the service buzzer, summoning Francine Jones to pick them up. _So then, let them all learn to serve me and be glad!_

* * *

**- The Kitchens, **_**The Valiant, **_**December 2008** -

_Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!_

Francine Jones, who had already been up for hours, glanced up at the maid service call board on the wall, her eyes narrowed in fury.

_Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!_

"Oooooh, that _woman_!" she snarled. "What does she want now? Expecting us to wait on her hand and foot like some kind of princess!"

Tish, who was busy scrubbing pots in one of the large sinks, looked at her in concern. "I'll go, Mum," she offered. "You sit down and put your feet up for a bit."

Francine was about to accept in relief, sure that if she had to deal with Lucy Saxon right now she would strangle the spoilt little bitch. But even as she opened her mouth, something seemed to stop her saying the words that would send Tish up to the Saxon Suite. An inexplicable, eerie feeling that they had all done this before.

"No, that's all right, love," she said, allowing the harsh lines of her face to relax into a smile. "I'll do it. I'm sure I can keep my mouth shut if I try really hard. Besides, you've got enough to do."

Tish smiled back, some of the weariness lifting from her expression at her mother's unusual cheerfulness. Things would be so much easier for everybody if Francine would stop lashing out at the world in her bitterness.

"Perhaps you should take her breakfast up when you go. It'll save you another trip," she suggested. Then, looking out over the busy kitchen, she yelled, "Wes! Is her Ladyship's breakfast ready yet?"

The young kitchen-hand looked around, his face lighting in a shy grin of admiration. "C...coming r...right up, Tish," he stuttered nervously, before rushing off to load a tray with dishes.

"Oooooh, I think somebody might have a crush on you," Francine teased.

Tish blushed. "Who, Wes? He's just a kid."

Francine laughed – the first time Tish had heard her mother laugh in a long, long time. "Still nice though, isn't it?"

Tish turned back to the washing-up, a warm glow sparkling inside her. Her mother was laughing again and a boy thought she was pretty.

Perhaps things weren't all bad after all.

* * *

**- The Flight Deck, _The Valiant, _December 2008 - **

Wearing her usual short, black sleeveless dress, Tania walked on to the flight deck. As usual, she totally ignored the disdainful, contemptuous glances of her erstwhile colleagues. In the old days, her position as stewardess had been to look after any VIPs that had travelled on board the mighty aircraft carrier, ensuring that they wanted for nothing. These days her job description was much more straightforward – ensuring that the Master wanted for nothing. And, whatever these judgemental idiots might think, it was was a job she did very, very well. Surreptitiously, she stretched her lithe body. Beneath her dress, her skin was covered in fresh bruises. The Master hadn't been in a particularly gentle mood the previous night. Tania didn't care. A bit of rough sex had never bothered her. She had always been attracted to powerful men. And in all the history of the world, there had never been a man more powerful than the Master.

She smiled just thinking about it. If she continued to please him, who knew where it might lead? Perhaps she would be able to persuade him to dump that insipid milk-and-water wife of his. He was already tiring of her. Then, once Lucy was gone, Tania could take her place by his side, becoming the most powerful woman in the world. A few bruises were a small price to pay for such a prize.

So caught up was she in her fantasy world, she failed to notice one of the nearby guards returning her smile with a leer of his own. When she finally registered his interested look, she recoiled in disgust.

_Ewwwww, the disgusting, acne-scarred creep actually thought she was smiling at HIM! As if!_

Shooting him a pointed glare, she turned her back coldly and flounced away up the stairs, making it plain that she considered him nothing but dirt beneath her feet.

Karl Emerson Conrad watched her go with a deep sigh of disappointment.

_Oh, to be the Master, _he thought longingly. _Just for a day!_

* * *

**- Outside the Flight Deck doors, _The Valiant,_ December 2008 -**

The Master felt on edge. He had dreamed during the night, a strange, haunting nightmare that he was finding difficult to shake off, even now the daylight had arrived. Frustratingly, he could only remember bits and pieces of the dream - twisted, distorted fragments that nagged at him, as though he had forgotten something of vital urgency, something that was taunting him, just out of reach. He recalled walking down a long, white, glowing corridor, carrying something heavy in his arms, although he couldn't remember what it was. Then he had come to the Untempered Schism. That in itself was not unusual – how often had he dreamed about that awful day in the last nine hundred years? _Too many times to count_. But this particular nightmare had been very different. He had looked into the swirling disc of blue light, and instead of seeing the terrifying majesty of the Time Vortex, he had seen a reflection of himself, not as the child he had been, but as an adult, in this regeneration. The image had been identical to his current body in every respect, except for two things. Firstly, for some reason his hair had been blonde. And secondly, when he had looked into his double's eyes he had seen no pain, no insanity, no torment, no incessant, never-ending noise. There was just...silence...peace...and an indefinable comfort that he had always yearned for but had never possessed.

When he had woken, he had tried to dismiss the dream as nonsense. But the memory of the look in the other man's eyes stayed with him, no matter what he did to distract himself. In the end, he had irritably decided to make his way to the Flight Deck. Maybe some gloating to the Doctor would make him feel better. Seeing his old enemy so helpless and completely at his mercy always cheered him up.

As he rounded the corner, he saw Tejana about to enter the doors to the Flight Deck, closely followed by her black-clad guard. The Master smiled to himself. Why wait to taunt the Doctor when his lovely daughter would serve the purpose just as well?

"Stop!" he snapped out.

The guard paused obediently, holding Tejana's arm to prevent her from going through the double doors. Stiffly, she turned to face the Master as he strode down the corridor, her delicate features hardening in immediate contempt. He stepped close to her, trying to intimidate her by deliberately invading her personal space, crowding her back against the nearest wall so she could not retreat from him. Eerily, the odd, unsettled feeling engendered by his nightmare seemed to grow stronger, prickling across his skin as he looked down into her face.

"Good morning, Lady Tejana," he said softly into her ear, his tone faintly mocking as he used her full title. "Did you sleep well?"

Her eyes flashed, her pride refusing to allow her to shrink away from him, unwilling as always to give him the satisfaction of showing a reaction. "Perfectly, thanks so much for asking," she replied with cold, condescending civility, as if she was encountering him at some boring Gallifreyan social function, instead of being a prisoner at his mercy.

_Arrogant little princess_, he thought, half in anger and half in reluctant admiration. No matter what happened, she always carried herself with the perfect dignity of a Time Lady, so unlike the abject, spineless human women on board. He thought contemptuously of the one he had been with the night before..._What was her name? Teresa? Tania? Something like that..._Every time he had hit her, the stupid, worthless whore had come crawling back, begging for more. He knew without a doubt that Tejana would slit her own wrists before she ever demeaned herself like that.

Without warning, a vivid flashback from his nightmare burned through his mind. Again he saw himself walking down that long, white corridor towards the Untempered Schism. The unknown weight he had been carrying...with a shock, he now realised it had been Tejana, her body limp and unresisting in his arms. His sudden clear recollection of the dream both startled and annoyed him. _What the hell was that all about? Why would he be dreaming about the Doctor's daughter, of all people?_

His eyes played intently over her face, trying to puzzle it out. To his surprise, for some reason her long black hair was loose today, tumbling in a luxuriant, curly mass down her back. Usually, she kept it tightly confined in a plait or wound into a severe knot at the back of her head. He had never seen it loose before. He couldn't help staring at it in fascination. _It looked so soft, so beautiful, so tempting..._

Before he knew what he was doing, he put out his hand and twined his fingers gently in the silky strands, relishing the feel of it on his skin. Tejana's eyes dropped to his hand but, although she tensed, she made no move to stop him. Suddenly he was very aware of the feminine warmth of her, pressed so tantalisingly close to him. He could smell the sweet, elusive honeysuckle scent of her hair and his breathing quickened despite himself.

"I like your hair like this," he murmured huskily. "You should leave it loose more often."

Tejana didn't answer. That wasn't unusual – icy, silent resistance was her usual means of trying to aggravate him. But when he met her eyes, expecting to see disdain and defiance, he saw instead an odd mixture of confusion and something that looked very much like the reluctant heat of desire. The Master felt his entire body tighten savagely in response, unexpected sexual electricity leaping between them. Everything else faded to a distance, his gaze falling hungrily to her soft mouth, his head moving closer to hers, the drums pounding wildly in his ears. _Oh Rassilon, he wanted to..._

But before either one of them could move, the nearby lift pinged and the doors slid open to reveal the Doctor in his wheelchair, accompanied by his guard. All at once, the sensual spell binding the Master and Tejana together was shattered into a million pieces. Recollecting where he was and what he was supposed to be doing, the Master's hand tightened ruthlessly, almost painfully, in her hair, twisting it cruelly around his fingers, his touch changing from caress to threat in the blink of an eye. At the same time, her chin came up proudly, the familiar look of hatred and contempt restored to her face.

"I think, this afternoon, Lady Tejana, you will be the one to give me my massage," he said coldly, his expression hard and implacable. "It's about time you made yourself useful around here."

With one last vicious tug on her hair, he released her and stepped back, very satisfied with his new idea. Forcing the Doctor's haughty little princess to massage him would be an ideal way to humiliate her, he told himself. It would teach her that she was now nothing more than his slave and that he was her Master. It had nothing to do with wanting to feel her hands on him, nothing at all. He had a whole harem of women at his disposal, all of them pathetically eager to do anything he wanted in bed. He hardly needed Tejana for that. The peculiar, fraught moment between them had been nothing more than an aberration, just some sort of strange reaction to the weird dream he had experienced. It wasn't as if it would ever happen again.

Trying to forget about what had almost taken place, he turned his attention instead to the new arrival. "Good morning, Gandalf!" he exclaimed cheerfully, seizing the handles of the wheelchair from the guard and pushing it roughly towards the doors of the flight deck. "Let's go for a little ride, shall we?"

* * *

Entering the flight deck with Peter hard on her heels, Tejana saw the Master zooming the Doctor's wheelchair around and around the conference table at a sickening rate, laughing maniacally all the while. A shudder shook her slender frame. For one tiny moment back there she had thought the Master was going to kiss her. Worse – much, much worse - for one tiny moment, she had thought she was going to let him.

Watching him gleefully tormenting her father like a deranged child, a sick sense of shame rose inside her. How could she ever have contemplated allowing him to touch her? The man was a monster, completely insane and totally evil. She hated absolutely everything about him.

_She didn't want to kiss him, she wanted to KILL him._

A small secret smile curled the corners of her mouth. Perhaps now, if she played her cards right, she could have her chance. So the arrogant bastard wanted her to massage him, did he? Well, to do that, he would have to release her hands from her manacles. And with her hands free, the possibilities for murder were endless. Maybe she could even figure out a way to get hold of his laser screwdriver. A fierce pleasure filled her at the thought. The idea of killing him with his own weapon definitely had an elegant poetic justice to it.

Seating herself at her accustomed place at the conference table, her face as impassive as ever, her agile mind began to plan the Master's downfall.

* * *

The Doctor closed his eyes against the nausea caused by the dizzying gyrations of the wheelchair, the scene he had just witnessed playing itself out again in his mind. For some reason, it was bothering him deeply. It wasn't because the Master had been threatening his daughter – that was a common enough occurrence, after all. It was more because he sensed that, before he had arrived, the Master _hadn't_ been threatening her.

Something strange was going on. First, that peculiar, profoundly unsettling dream, creeping up on him when he'd had no intention of falling asleep. Then the weird sense of deja vu he'd had ever since he'd woken up, as though this day had all happened before. Seeing Tejana and the Master standing so close together had only intensified the odd feeling. It was as though he'd forgotten something very, very important.

But, for the life of him, he couldn't remember what it was.

The Master whooped in insane delight as he nearly tipped the wheelchair over on a particularly sharp corner. The Doctor sighed, giving up on his train of thought and clinging on to the arms of the chair as tightly as he could.

He could already tell it was going to be another _very_ long day.

* * *

**- The Barracks, _The Valiant, _December 2008 -**

Slowly and wearily, Damon Smith sat down on the edge of his bunk, carefully pulling off his boots one by one. He hated doing the night shift. It never seemed right to be going to bed just when the sun was beginning to peep over the horizon. Still, he supposed he was better off than those poor sods down on the Earth, herded into overcrowded, disused houses every night to sleep, with little food and no sanitation, only to be led out to the Master's shipyards at the crack of dawn to work like dogs until night fell again. Damon's friend Peter had been trying to secure him a position with the Master's personal bodyguard, a small, elite group of men responsible for guarding both the Master and his special prisoners, and who enjoyed immense privileges. While Damon appreciated the thought, he wasn't entirely sure he was interested. Somehow it felt too much like selling his soul, when so many others were suffering all across the Earth.

But right now, he was completely exhausted and all he wanted to do was sleep. He began to empty his pockets, carefully stowing his few treasured possessions in the foot-locker beside his bed. Firstly, his torch. He always carried a torch in his pocket. You never knew when you were going to be caught in the dark and need some light. Then, a Swiss Army Knife, an essential tool that had got him out of many a tight corner.

And then, lastly, and most important of all, the gold fob watch. He didn't really remember where it had come from. All he knew was that it had been with him all his life and was incredibly precious to him, even though it was very old and had never worked. Gently, he ran his fingers over it, softly and intimately, almost caressing it. It was a beautiful thing, engraved with intricate, circular markings that made him think of distant planets and far away galaxies. Damon felt comforted just by touching it, as though it was a tiny piece of home. Suddenly, he became aware of the whispering again. It was always with him, especially when he held the watch, the unintelligible voices always just out of reach, threading through his mind, tantalising him with secrets he couldn't share.

But today, there was one voice that stood out from the others. Clutching the watch to his chest, Damon listened intently, trying to make it out. It was a woman, speaking just to him, her words becoming clearer and clearer, closer and closer.

_Halfway out of the dark. Halfway out of the dark. HALFWAY OUT OF THE DARK._

To Damon's surprise, a cold sweat broke out on his brow and his hands started to shake. All at once, he couldn't look away from the watch he was holding. It seemed to call to him. _It wanted him to open it_. But that was crazy. It didn't open – it was stuck, it had always been stuck. He had always known better than to waste time attempting to open it.

_But why not? Why shouldn't he try?_ Trembling, his fingers moved to the catch, ready to pop it open.

"Are you all right, Smith?" a Cockney voice cut in, making him jump. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

Looking up, he saw Private Adam Dalgliesh standing nearby and staring at him curiously. Self-consciously, as if he had been caught doing something shameful, Damon shoved the watch into his foot-locker and slammed the door. Immediately, the covert whispering ebbed away.

"I'm fine, thanks, Dalgliesh," he replied shortly, stripping off his trousers and jacket. "I just need some kip."

Dalgliesh paused for a moment, but then nodded and kept on walking further down the room to his own bunk. Damon wrapped himself in his rough, grey blanket and lay on his bed, berating himself for being so stupid. It was only an old, broken watch. He must really be tired, to allow his imagination to run away with him like that.

Even as he laid his head on the pillow and closed his eyes, sleep came in great white waves to claim him. And as he slept, Damon Smith dreamed of throwing snow-balls at a laughing blonde girl in a crystal forest under a burnt-orange sky.

**- THE END -**

* * *

**_Author's Note _**

_**For the sequel to this fic, please read, "The Master's Rose".**_

_**SUMMARY: Th**__**e Master and Tejana have landed on the planet Mnemosyne, a strange, secret place where it's possible for things long ago forgotten to once again be remembered. To the Master's shock, he begins to realise that what he remembers of the Time War might not actually be what happened at all. Someone on Mnemosyne knows the truth. Someone wants the Master to remember. But there are some things that are much, much safer left forgotten...**_


End file.
